How I Spent My Day Off
So yesterday was my only day off for a while to come...I'll be at work every day for the next 7, in fact. I was supposed to go up to my parents' place and go through some of my old stuff...Dad is talking about retiring soon and if they move, they won't want to take all my old crap with them, ha.
Anyway. I find being around my mother for long stretches of time to be very stressful. So CJ and I decided to go out to breakfast and have a pleasant morning together, so I could at least get my day started nicely.
We ended up waking up an hour later than we'd planned, so we went out an hour later than planned and got back to our place an hour later than we'd planned.....and it was a damn good thing we were running late, because if we'd been an hour earlier, we would have totally missed finding this little guy:
This utterly adorable baby squirrel was laying in our parking lot, right where cars turn to come into our part of the lot. We almost ran over him, in fact, but CJ and I are both pretty attuned to that sort of thing. He backed up and went around him. As we went past, I looked down...he was laying splayed out on the pavement with his back legs twisted to the side. "Poor thing," I said. "He has to be dead...look at that!" He had fallen out of his nest, which is in some branches that overhang the lot. He was pretty much directly below the nest, in fact. I figured he'd gone "splat" when he fell...and that's very sad, but it happens, unfortunately.
But when we walked over to him, intending to move the corpse out of the parking lot so it wouldn't be run over, I realized that, oh my fucking lord, he's BREATHING.
I instantly started bawling and saying, "What can we do? Oh my god, what do we do? I can't just leave him here! That would be killing him!!"
So we carefully scooped him up in gloved hands and put him into a shoebox lined with clean towels. As soon as we started moving him, he started squirming and making these heart-wrenching little squeaks. He was actually way more active than we thought possible, moving all four legs quite well. The only sign of injury was blood dripping from his poor little nosey. While I watched to make sure he was still breathing, CJ started calling around and found what seemed to be our best bet for a wildlife rehab/rescue center.
Only problem? That place's voice mailbox was full. Grargh! Cockblock! So we just kept calling other places, but no one could take the little guy. Some places don't take babies. Others, the number was no longer valid. The place with the full mailbox was pretty much our ONLY option. So I kept calling. And suddenly, someone answered!! She explained that their phones had been down all day and calls had been going straight to voicemail, but they hadn't known about it until just now and now they were totally backlogged with all the morning's calls and messages. So she gave me another name and number and told me to call that lady. Ooookay. So I called that lady, and she was on her way to the airport to leave town! MOTHERFUCKER. So I called the first place back....and no one answered! I started calling the number every five minutes for about 3/4 of an hour and never got through, but finally, the mailbox was empty enough that I could leave a message.
But no one called back.
And no one called back.
And meanwhile, I have a fucking adorable baby squirrel with a bloody nose in a shoebox on my coffee table and I'm getting more and more frustrated and upset. He just curled up and slept, though, as you can see in the above picture. SO CUTE IT HURT.
6 PM rolls around and I'm figuring I'm not getting a call back today and that CJ will have to start calling this place at 8 am the next morning, assuming the squirrel makes it through the night in his little shoebox bed.
A couple of friends came over and squeeed over the little guy a bit.
As we're sitting there, my phone rings. I look down and see the number I'd called approximately 85 gazillion times that day....it was them! Calling back!!! At 9 PM!!!!
I answered happily and she asked if I still wanted to bring him in. Uh, YEAH. So she gave me directions and the five of us (Me, CJ, our two friends, and the little guy) all piled into my car and off we went!
She looked him over...she says he's about 3 weeks old. Dehydrated. Bad case of fleas (which I'd already noticed, ick.) Having a bit of trouble breathing due to the blood in his sinuses (which I'd also already noticed.) But I think she sounded hopeful...I think he's going to be okay!!!
So we drove home and stopped for ice cream on the way. Two scoops of chocolate caramel crunch at 10 PM was my dinner.
And that's how I spent my day off.
Gratuitous baby squirrel picture!!!
Anyway. I find being around my mother for long stretches of time to be very stressful. So CJ and I decided to go out to breakfast and have a pleasant morning together, so I could at least get my day started nicely.
We ended up waking up an hour later than we'd planned, so we went out an hour later than planned and got back to our place an hour later than we'd planned.....and it was a damn good thing we were running late, because if we'd been an hour earlier, we would have totally missed finding this little guy:
This utterly adorable baby squirrel was laying in our parking lot, right where cars turn to come into our part of the lot. We almost ran over him, in fact, but CJ and I are both pretty attuned to that sort of thing. He backed up and went around him. As we went past, I looked down...he was laying splayed out on the pavement with his back legs twisted to the side. "Poor thing," I said. "He has to be dead...look at that!" He had fallen out of his nest, which is in some branches that overhang the lot. He was pretty much directly below the nest, in fact. I figured he'd gone "splat" when he fell...and that's very sad, but it happens, unfortunately.
But when we walked over to him, intending to move the corpse out of the parking lot so it wouldn't be run over, I realized that, oh my fucking lord, he's BREATHING.
I instantly started bawling and saying, "What can we do? Oh my god, what do we do? I can't just leave him here! That would be killing him!!"
So we carefully scooped him up in gloved hands and put him into a shoebox lined with clean towels. As soon as we started moving him, he started squirming and making these heart-wrenching little squeaks. He was actually way more active than we thought possible, moving all four legs quite well. The only sign of injury was blood dripping from his poor little nosey. While I watched to make sure he was still breathing, CJ started calling around and found what seemed to be our best bet for a wildlife rehab/rescue center.
Only problem? That place's voice mailbox was full. Grargh! Cockblock! So we just kept calling other places, but no one could take the little guy. Some places don't take babies. Others, the number was no longer valid. The place with the full mailbox was pretty much our ONLY option. So I kept calling. And suddenly, someone answered!! She explained that their phones had been down all day and calls had been going straight to voicemail, but they hadn't known about it until just now and now they were totally backlogged with all the morning's calls and messages. So she gave me another name and number and told me to call that lady. Ooookay. So I called that lady, and she was on her way to the airport to leave town! MOTHERFUCKER. So I called the first place back....and no one answered! I started calling the number every five minutes for about 3/4 of an hour and never got through, but finally, the mailbox was empty enough that I could leave a message.
But no one called back.
And no one called back.
And meanwhile, I have a fucking adorable baby squirrel with a bloody nose in a shoebox on my coffee table and I'm getting more and more frustrated and upset. He just curled up and slept, though, as you can see in the above picture. SO CUTE IT HURT.
6 PM rolls around and I'm figuring I'm not getting a call back today and that CJ will have to start calling this place at 8 am the next morning, assuming the squirrel makes it through the night in his little shoebox bed.
A couple of friends came over and squeeed over the little guy a bit.
As we're sitting there, my phone rings. I look down and see the number I'd called approximately 85 gazillion times that day....it was them! Calling back!!! At 9 PM!!!!
I answered happily and she asked if I still wanted to bring him in. Uh, YEAH. So she gave me directions and the five of us (Me, CJ, our two friends, and the little guy) all piled into my car and off we went!
She looked him over...she says he's about 3 weeks old. Dehydrated. Bad case of fleas (which I'd already noticed, ick.) Having a bit of trouble breathing due to the blood in his sinuses (which I'd also already noticed.) But I think she sounded hopeful...I think he's going to be okay!!!
So we drove home and stopped for ice cream on the way. Two scoops of chocolate caramel crunch at 10 PM was my dinner.
And that's how I spent my day off.
Gratuitous baby squirrel picture!!!