Boy Meets Squirrel

What is the line that Hugh Grant says at the beginning of Love, Actually? "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport." He loves seeing the friends and family members expressing their love for one another after returning from a trip. It's a nice notion. Perhaps, thinking about the airports doesn't help everyone to remove their gloom-- and especially not when thinking about airports in the U.S. in March of 2026-- so, what else could do it?

For me, I often think about how too many people are greedy, lacking compassion for others, only thinking about themselves... it can feel like it's most people some days. I think about times when I've seen people be the exact opposite. And the other day, I had another prime example of that.

To set the stage, I feed the animals outside every morning. I started doing it during the pandemic to have something to get me to go outside, and it became my hobby. Every day. I'm outside, getting fresh air, seeing all types of birds, squirrels... there are even little gophers that pop up that are especially funny. I love seeing all the animals, always have. And I love being able to give them food. For one, I don't know, it's just nice. But secondly, I am extremely aware how hard humans have made life on so many animals. We've displaced them, destroyed their homes, limited their habitats, put in rules and laws for when "it is OK to kill which animals," and plenty more things. We've made life so difficult for so many animals. I like to be able to make it a little easier. None of this is what's supposed to remove the gloom. That's coming. This is just me trying to fight against the heavy current of other humans.

On behalf of my species, I'm sorry.

I get plenty of pigeons, sparrows, finches, mourning doves, squirrels, and tons more types of animals. Unfortunately, hawks come by. So do coyotes. I get it, Circle of life. All that stuff. I know the hawks and coyotes need to live too, I know they need to eat animals. But guys, go do it somewhere else. I'm trying to make a safe haven for these animals. Luckily, I found out crows are territorial and scare the hawks and coyotes away... so, I feed the crows and they are the security guards of the neighborhood. It works out pretty well. I hope the coyotes and hawks can find elsewhere to hunt. Usually they do, but I still see them occasionally.

One day while outside, I saw a little squirrel climb down one tree and come over to my position where the food was. Usually, they go to the trees and wait in the branches, but this one was coming right up to me. But he was moving around strangely.

I saw him climb down the tree well enough, but the way he was walking was off. He was moving in a labored way, slowly, awkwardly. And then, while observing him, I saw the big chunks of fur missing from his back. I didn't see any blood or cuts, but he looked to be injured.

I also think that he didn't even see me at first, and then suddenly did and JUMPED at me... only to ricochet off my leg and go back to eating. It was like I scared him and he thought he had to defend himself... but he didn't do anything to me. I was realizing that in addition to his seemingly injured body, it appeared that either his vision or cognitive ability was off.

Then, it became apparent how bad it was. The squirrels will often grab some food in their hands, stand up on their back legs, and eat like a person would while eating a sandwich. He would attempt to do this... and then just tip over. He was hungry, and he was eating a good deal, but he kept falling over. He couldn't hold himself up, as if one of his legs was so injured that he couldn't put weight on it. I saw this happen several times and realized, something is not right with this little guy. And I was thinking he was not going to be able to make it... if a coyote came by... he wasn't going to be able to get away in time.

After MANY calls and conversations with different organizations who help injured animals, it was determined the best thing to do was to get this squirrel help. No organizations in our area were able to come out and see the little guy. We found a couple that were far away that would be able to help him... but they were miles and miles away. The only way for them to do this... is if I got him... and brought him in.

Now, have you ever tried to catch a squirrel? Quick story. You can't. Not even an injured one. They are so fast and agile, as are so many wild animals. As a human who's evolved to living indoors and finding all his food in a supermarket, I have no natural instincts in this capacity. I tried. I tried so much. I had a box with pecans and walnuts in it, tried to coax him into it, get him, close it up... no. This was not happening. He would get halfway in the box, and then run, and then climb.

And then... he was gone. I was so bummed. I didn't know where he went, but I was so afraid that he wouldn't make it through the night out in the wild like this. I don't know if he had fallen or been attacked by a predator, but though I couldn't get him, a predator easily could. I was just about to leave my place for an appointment, when I saw him outside again. I figured I had to try one last time. I was back with my box and a towel trying to get him, and it was impossible.

The gardener for the building next door to me had recently arrived. He doesn't always come the same time or even same day, but he happened to be there at that moment, and he was watching me, wondering what I was doing. I explained everything to him and he promptly dropped everything he was doing and came over to try to help me.

He had a bunch of grass clippings that he was trying to distract the squirrel with so I could get him but it wasn't working. We were trying to corner him, get him with a towel, maneuver him into the box... but no. He eventually ran up a tree and went into a branch about 20 feet up. The gardener put the grass clippings in the box and we went underneath the squirrel, worried he'd slip off from the branch. He was hanging on, but we could see he was slipping.

Eventually, the squirrel slipped and grabbed onto another branch! I shook the towel near the branch that the squirrel held onto, trying to get it to let go... it let go... and the gardener caught him! (It wasn't a big drop from that point. Just a few feet... and he fell into the cushion of all the grass.) He put the box down and I grabbed all the edges and closed it up!

And we had the squirrel.

Long story short, I brought him to a vet once I could. They took a look at him. He had a fracture in one leg, and a neurological issue, likely a concussion. They let him recover with them, gave him pain meds, and then transferred him to a rehab center where he will recover until he was 100% fine. Assuming he is good to go back into the wild, in several months once he is good, they will drive him ALL THE WAY back to me. (It's a long drive. Not even a neighboring city.)

I got one last photo of the squirrel in the box with his big bed of grass and all the snacks I was popping in through the airholes that I forgot to mention I had put into the box BEFORE even trying to catch him.

I'm sure he was scared at that moment. But he is going to get better. He is going to heal. Soon, he wouldn't be scared. And he would be brought back to his family once he was good.

So, all that being said... what I did was minimal. Honestly. I don't tell the story to be like, look what I did. Because I didn't really do much, except try. I wanted the squirrel to get help. And I am so glad that there are organizations that do this type of stuff. For free. They heal up a little squirrel, bring him to a rehab center, and the rehab center allows him to stay there for months until he is fully healthy. That is quite a lot that I wouldn't really expect an organization to do. But it's a reminder, there are good people out there wanting to help innocent, injured animals.

And the gardener! This guy saw me trying to get a squirrel, and once he heard what was happening and saw how the squirrel was injured, he dropped what he was doing to help me. We'd talked a half a dozen times before, never for longer than a minute, and we didn't even know each others' names before that moment. And he still decided that he should stop in the middle of his work and help me for 20-30 minutes. And mind you, I was NOT going to be able to get this squirrel alone. I just was not. I was feeling so defeated, thinking I'd failed at helping the squirrel, worried what would happen to him, but this guy helped me to get him.

Because of the gardener, because of the vets and rehab employees, this squirrel is going to get healed up and return to his family. Those are some truly awesome people. And now, I'll just wait to see if I can notice when this squirrel has retuned home.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the people who made an effort to help a stranger so an injured squirrel could get the aid he needed, for no benefit to themselves, but simply because he needed help."