NOT MUCH OF A SQUIRREL

This was Kibbles around a week/week and a half after she came into the family

My days ended late (12:30/1:00 am) and started early (3:00/ 3:30 am) last summer-ever since Stacey called early on a Monday morning in July—

“Ohmuhgawd! The dogs found a squirrel—a baby. I thought it was dead but it’s squirming around and I have to leave to go to Bumfuck Virginia" (she said where it was but it’s way up in the hills and Bumfuck is as good a name as any) "for work and I don’t know what to do with it and it’s all covered in dog spit and dirt and can you take care of it?”

Of course I said yes cause there’s nothing in the world cuter than a baby squirrel—only “Kibbles” was anything but cute. She was a little pink worm about the size of my thumb, naked and bruised where the doggies had tasted her (silly doggies—squirrels are NOT kibble). She was cold and hungry. We'd had a frawg-strangler storm the night before—heavy rain, wind, lightning—and the tiny squirrel got washed out of her home—or worse—the nest blew down and all the other babies were lost. She was about the homeliest thing I'd ever set eyeballs on and I was hopelessly in love. It wasn't too long (with the help of a bunch of Internet friends on The Squirrel Board) before my little girl was growing and had a coat of soft gray down coming in.

It took her awhile to accept the business end of a syringe as a surrogate Mom—after all—mama squirrels are soft and warm and their teeny tits are just right for a little squirrel. A syringe is cold and hard and the milk never comes out right. She fought hard tho and as soon as she figured out I wasn't trying to strangle her, she started eating anything that came near her little mouth. She scooted around in her box, her features became more squirrel like, she got whiskers and a tiny tuft at the end of her little tail. She got teeth! In a few weeks she was a mini-squirrel and in 36 days her beautiful black eyes opened and she started to nibble on things and explore.

The sleep deprivation of getting up several times a night to feed and make sure my baby pooped and peed is fair trade for the privilege of watching a tiny miracle grow. Blessings DO fall from trees and every now and then a tiny one drops into our hands. It's as close as anyone gets to godhood. All those Walt Disney squirrels and birdies twittering outside our window are brutalized every second of their micro-lives. The Almighty may find something sacred in watching sparrows fall but I’d just as soon see the odds skewed in favor of the sparrows every now and then--and the squirrels.