happy ending

I'm hoping this was a happy ending. I don't really know for sure. I was gazing out the back window and chatting with Jay on the phone yesterday as evening was drawing near. We were chatting about chipmucks and baby wild animals...a topic dear to our hearts. Jay said that the chippys are nervous around Sara's dog Kayn. They run and hide and then peek their little heads back out. I was describing our most recent baby chip who was cavorting on the patio. Then I noticed movement out by one of our trees. I thought it was a baby bunny because we often see them in that same spot year after year. I ran out for a look and found this baby squirrel who had fallen out of the tree. His tail was much longer than his little body. It looked to me as though he might have hurt his back leg. His mother was clinging upside down to the tree, warning me to keep my distance. I retreated. But I returned again to take a picture of baby squirrel before I went indoors and checked on him from the window repeatedly.



Every year my heart is twisted by some baby animal abandoned in our yard. Last year I rescued three baby starlings whose nest was blown out of the tree during a windstorm. A lady from a wild animal shelter met me in Circuit City (before it went out of business) parking lot to take the babies from me. Later I called to find that one was dead when she got them, one died later, but one strong little birdie survived and flourished.



Another year I rescued momma duck and most of the 12 baby ducklings that she had hatched in our old BBQ pit. She had tried to cross our busy road with 12 babies in tow.

Back to baby squirrel... I saw momma come down the tree and she wrapped her little arms around baby. She looked like she was trying to pull baby along with her. But then she left and went back up the tree a ways. Then I had to go back to my movie that I was watching with B. The next time I looked...baby was gone. No sign of baby or momma. I looked again this morning. No sign of baby. I hope that I look out my window later this summer and see a squirrel with a slight limp. Then I will know that it was a happy ending.