That time the Squirrel Dropped Dead

One Saturday morning, a month or two ago, while I was putting away laundry and the kids were playing outside, an ecstatic Anna came rushing into the house.

"Mommy! Mommy! You have to come see! It's so amazing! The squirrel that I was talking to up in our tree, fell down, and now she's laying next to me and playing with me!"

(Before I go further into this story, let me just briefly explain that Anna is our one true animal lover in this house. Every spring when the birds, rabbits, and squirrels start appearing in our yard, she sits under our tree in the back yard and talks to them and even names some of them. Her favorite this past summer was a barn swallow that sat in our tree chirping that she named Mrs. Cheep.)

Anyways, with that in mind, I'll admit that my kids come inside excited to show me anything remotely different that they've found in the backyard, and there are times when some could consider my enthusiasm and interest somewhat....lacking. 

This time though, I suppose, there was something about Anna's excitement-not to mention the fact that she was insisting that a squirrel of all things was laying next to her- that I stopped what I was doing immediately and followed Anna outside.

And wouldn't you know, there most certainly was a squirrel laying conked out in the grass right where Anna had been playing.

Immediately the urge to yell "Squirrel!!" at the top of my lungs and rush everyone inside came upon me. That and the overwhelming desire to not let anyone outside until Erik came home from work and let him "take care" of what appeared to be a dead squirrel laying in the middle of our yard.

But my kids had completely different reactions.

"Oh, mama, can we keep him?!"

"Mama, I think he's sick can you go get him some medicine?"

"Mama....did he die? Is he going to be all right?" asked Anna.

"Oh, I think he'll be all right,"declared Lily,"we just need to give him food and water!"

All the while I'm thinking, "You guys. Seriously. This is a dead animal. And it almost fell on your sister's head. This is disgusting, let's get in the house, and wait for daddy to get home."(Insert clenched teeth.)

But, I'll admit that seeing them get so concerned about something was pretty sweet, so after I told them not to get too close to the squirrel, I begrudgingly let Anna, Lily, and Jack fix him a plate of food and a cup of water.

Then they prayed for him, and Anna sang him a song.

And then, finally we went inside, washed our hands, and waited for Erik to come home from work.

The only problem was that Erik wound up having to work longer than expected, and ended up having to spend the night where he was working. But since it was a beautiful day outside it didn't feel right to make the kids stay inside all day.

So, finally, I went out to the back yard mentally preparing myself to have to pick up a dead animal out of our yard. But to my delight, the squirrel was gone!

Did a bird pick him up? Did he just simply take a hard fall out of a tree and get knocked out for awhile? I have no idea.

All I know is that my kids were overjoyed that the squirrel was probably all right, and that they(at least in their minds) had helped him recover.

And, really...that's all I need to know.

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