Rescue Mission
What started off as a nice stroll to get some ice cream turned crazy pretty quickly. It was a nice day for a walk, my mom and I were pretty restless and decided to walk to lickty split for some classic soft serve, rainbow sprinkles please! On our way down Grand Blvd. I saw this thing just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, didn't really think anything of it. Leaves maybe? yard rubbish most likely, and then it moved! It was small with a white looking tail. I grabbed my mom's elbow I didn't know what it was I wanted to slow down. Honestly it looked like a rat. You just don't see rats chilling on the sidewalk in Binghamton. Upon closer inspection it was clearly no rat, it was the cutest little baby squirrel. It reminded me of one of those little starving kids in Ethiopia, it had a huge head with flies crawling all over its face it was heart breaking really. We tried walking around it, we didn't want to scare it towards the road. But every time we moved it tried to crawl towards us. I being the animal lover I am told my mom we had to do something. Her being the reasonable one assured me that we had to leave it the mom would be looking for it. So we compromised, I suggested if on the way back it was still there we would take it in. We had an empty birdcage at the house we could keep it in until we can get a hold of the rehabilitation center in the boonies. (We've rescued a squirrel that I thought was a baby before. So we've had experiance with this sort of thing and the little old lady has been doing this for years she was so sweet.) So we continued on. My mom once again the responsible one, decided to stop at the dollar store since it was close by, to get some things on the off chance we should need to rescuse the little critter, we didn't want to not be prepared. A pair of gloves, a dishtowel, and a basket to carry the little critter in, just in case. After all it was probably only four blocks from my house where we found the little guy. We both figured he would be gone by the time we made our way home.
He wasn't.
Silently thanking my mom for her gift of forethought, we scooped the little guy up and took him home with us. A squirrel won't come out at night to look for its young. Little guy is safe and sound sleeping next to his warm water bottle(with a sock around it) for comfort, and I just feed him. He's the cutest little thing ever. Lindley thinks i should name him Lickty Split, I'm thinking its not a bad idea.
I don't have a picture of him but he looks just like this one I found on google.
Can you say adorable? I obviously couldn't just leave him outside to make a nice snack for some stray kitty.
[Edit(09/09/08)]: Lickty Split died yesterday. He was scheduled to go to the rehabilitation center this morning but he started having seizures. I looked what to do online and after trying to help he seemed to get better only to repeat a few hours later. Later in the day he seemed fine just pretty weak and tired. We took turns cuddling him to keep him warm. While my mom was holding him he just stopped breathing we did everything we could but couldn't revive him. I was pretty broken up about it. But my mom called the lady who was supposed to take him and she said from the beginning we did everything we could and that we didn't do anything wrong she was even thankful that we knew what we were doing. She also said that even if he had been with her, he most likely wouldn't have made it. There may have been a reason he was kicked out of the nest something may have been very wrong with him from the get-go. I tried my best I was so diligent with his care and I gave him all the love i could. Sometimes stuff like this just happens. It's far better that his last days were spent with caring people taking care of him, instead of left on the street where all sorts of horrors could have befallen him.
R.I.P. little dude you were adorable and fun to play/cuddle with.