Remember that Squirrel I was telling you about yesterday?? Apparently

[ScreamingMeemie]

he died. When my dad went back today (yes, with another squirrel) he was laying right where we left him. Funny has turned tragic. Today's squirrel ran right out and was happy as a clam. But the other little feller...sigh, must have been too much for his heart. :(

[Thtwudbeme]

1. To be honest with you, I wondered if something was wrong with him

yesterday when you wrote the story...

Don't feel bad; he sounds like he was sickly to begin with...if he couldn't even try to make it to the trees, he wouldn't have lasted the day in his "old place," either.

:(

Maybe the little fuzzy died of old age---

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. Thanks...I keep trying to think that he was sick. He was only in the cage

trap for a few hours so he couldn't really have made himself at home. At least he's not cold anymore. :(

[kick-ass-bob]

2. link?

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. Here you go...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4374995 :cry:

[kick-ass-bob]

9. Sorry, MrsG.

But it probably had a better last few moments than it otherwise would have.

:hug:

[merh]

3. ((((hug))))

:cry: :hug:

Don't look at is sad, you and your dad gave him comfort and warmth before he died. :hug:

:grouphug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. Thanks merh....My dad called me and told me and I asked him why

he told me that. (we're not going to tell the kids..they felt so good about themselves) He said he felt awful too. :hug:

[merh]

13. Give him a hug from me and ask him to hug you back for me.

I know it is sad, but that little fellow was warm and content and if you had kept him, you would have wondered if keeping him captive broke his heart and caused him to die. You would have been wondering if you should have set him free.

[ScreamingMeemie]

21. I sure will...thanks again.

:) you are among the very best. :hug:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Oh that's too sad!

Makes you wonder if he was trying to tell you something by clinging to the trap the way he did...

I'm sorry, Mrs Grumpy! :hug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Thanks GoG..I thought he just really liked being in the warm car, but

maybe he was sick. :( :hug:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. I'll bet he did like being in the warm car.

Just think...you gave him the last real thrill of his life!

[KitchenWitch]

6. Oh that is so sad!

:cry:

I loved that squirrel.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. Me too. The kids and I missed him after we drove away.

:( :cry:

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I killed a baby bird once. :^( Thought I was doing him a favor when I

rescued him but he was on his side and stiff as a British upper lip when I checked on him the next morning.

Cried myself silly over it.

Think I would have felt even worse about a squirrel. :(

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. It was really sad. too sad. Sad enough for me to let my dad let

those squirrels go on his own now. :(

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. :^( If you think he was sick, though.. should you make sure it wasn't

anything you could catch?

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. Nobody touched him...I'm not sure. Maybe I'll google it.

:hi:

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Good idea. :^) My baby bird happened a decade ago. Nowadays

I wouldn't dream of rescuing a bird but would call in an expert.

Looks like Rabies is not much of a concern:

Q: What is the risk of rabies from squirrels, mice, rats, and other rodents?

A: Small rodents (such as squirrels, rats, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, and chipmunks, ) and lagomorphs (such as rabbits and hares) are almost never found to be infected with rabies and have not been known to cause rabies among humans in the United States. Bites by these animals are usually not considered a risk of rabies unless the animal was sick or behaving in any unusual manner and rabies is widespread in your area. However, from 1985 through 1994, woodchucks accounted for 86% of the 368 cases of rabies among rodents reported to CDC. Woodchucks or groundhogs (Marmota monax) are the only rodents that may be frequently submitted to state health department because of a suspicion of rabies. In all cases involving rodents, the state or local health department should be consulted before a decision is made to initiate postexposure prophylaxis (PEP).

[LynneSin]

19. Seems you're no better than Evita. Should we put a Fatwa on your head

My poor purrty cat was tortured shameless for her need to kill songbirds. I think you owe her an apology!!!


:hide:

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. Nooooo....I didn't go "hunting"....

:P

[LynneSin]

24. That's the same story Evita is giving me and she's sticking with it

Now apologies to my damn cat!!

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. hehehehehe....can't make me.

;) :hi:

[LynneSin]

29. Well you better not be hanging around any AC vent openings

or that grey paw of death might come swiping

:crazy:

[fishnfla]

20. These squirrels--they got any weight to 'em?

Grandpappy would fix us up a batch af squirrel perlo, whichin' tastes near good as any other critter, you can betcha':9 :9 :9 :hide: :hide: :hide:

[ScreamingMeemie]

23. My fil loved Squirrel....

...I don't think I'd have the stomach for it...plus, he was a friend...sort of. :( :hi:

[0007]

27. I've heard that a lot of folks in the south eat possum and call it

squirrel.

An Army buddy use to tell me that possum was good if they wasn't flattened by a car.

[XemaSab]

25. What a downer!

Reminds me of a funny/sad thing that happened at work.

I tried to save a gopher from the path of a bulldozer, and it bit me then rolled over and died.

I had to get shots, I had to fill out forms including workman's comp, I had to go to the public health department TWICE....

And all the while everyone I had to deal with LAUGHED at me.

It was funny, but boy I felt dumb.

[In_The_Wind]

28. I'm sorry to hear that the poor lil' guy didn't make it.

The squirrels around here have become family. Many of them are easy to recognize from day to day.

:hi:

[flowomo]

30. I am so torn about squirrels.... wrote this column about it this summer

also online at:
www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/07/28/editorial/rich_lewis/lewis01.txt

Squirrels nice — just not in my yard
By Rich Lewis, July 28, 2005

We columnists usually tell people what to think about things, but this week I need you to tell me what to think on a grave matter about which I once had no doubt, but about which I now find myself in a crisis of indecision.

Are squirrels good or bad?

I don't mean "good or bad" in the sense of moral status — like, "Billy Graham is a good person" or "Saddam is a bad person" — but "good" in the sense that I should see one and say, "Aww, how cute. I want to give it a hug," or "bad" in the sense that I should say, "Get out of here you despicable rodent."

At the moment, I see a squirrel and both reactions flash through my mind simultaneously, leaving me in a state of evaluative meltdown and adding at least a couple of points to my blood pressure.

This is also true for chipmunks, which, significantly, my wife refers to as "racing squirrels" because of their stripes.

But that's another story.

Here's a quick trip down the road that led me to this unhappy place about squirrels.

As a little kid, I was taught to love squirrels of course. They were like milk and pandas, things you were just naturally supposed to think well of. And I did.

When I was in high school, my friend and I often went to Boston Common to sit on the benches and feed the squirrels. We'd bring peanuts and popcorn and the critters would run up and take the stuff right out of our hands. Aww, how cute.

One day an old homeless guy who said his name was Mr. Hanks came over and warned us never to bring salted peanuts because the salt made the squirrels' hair fall out. Some of the squirrels did look pretty shopworn, especially around the tails. So we were extra careful after that because we didn't want to hurt our furry friends.

Because squirrels were good.

A few years later, I saw the Washington, D.C.-area's famous black squirrels, the descendants of 18 Canadian squirrels imported when Teddy Roosevelt was president, which have since taken over the town. They're gorgeous things that argue to the eyes that squirrels are good.

About that time, though, I had my first hint of doubt. I came across the well-known adage that says, "A squirrel is just a rat with a good PR man."

Hmmm. Interesting thought. But instead of thinking less of squirrels, I ended up thinking better of rats — you know, "A rat is just a squirrel with a bad PR man."

So squirrels were probably good.

Years later, after we moved to Pennsylvania, some friends bought a log house in Southhampton Township. Much to my surprise, these nature lovers were at war with the squirrels, which had invaded their attic and were eating holes in the roof, not to mention buildings messy nests and leaving food and droppings all over the place up there.

Squirrels are bad? They certainly thought so.

More years later, at my own place in Dickinson Township, the squirrels showed up one summer. They didn't move into the house (the mice already occupied that), but they meticulously stripped the pears from the pear trees and the walnuts from the walnut trees. And they've been doing that every summer ever since.

Squirrels are bad.

This year, after previously treating the yard only as their personal farmers' market, the squirrels decided to stay and raise a family. So we had baby squirrels running all over the place.

They are so darling — frolicking in the branches (while devouring all the goodies), and rolling on the ground and wrestling with each other like kittens (their ratty bellies full of my pears and nuts).

Aww, so cute. Get out of here.

Now I sit on the porch every morning and marvel as these plump bundles of energy do their charming tricks — and grit my teeth as they steal my produce, and greedily munch the contents of my bird feeders. It takes the sparrows about two weeks to eat one of those thick suet cakes. A squirrel gobbles it down in about two minutes — indifferent to the fact that I'm staring daggers at it from 20 feet away.

One day, as I watched chewed-up walnut shards rain out of the trees, I decided enough was enough and bought one of those expensive Hav-a-Heart traps.

I figured I'd catch them and take them out to the deep woods somewhere. Because squirrels are bad.

But I haven't caught any squirrels in three weeks because I put the traps out, but don't put any bait in them — because I'm not sure I really want to catch them at all. Because squirrels are good.

So you tell me: What am I supposed to think about squirrels? I'll go either way, but loving them and hating them at the same time makes my head ache.

Maybe, as a compromise, they can live at your house and come visit me on weekends. That would work.

I'll even send over a few pears and nuts.

Rich Lewis's e-mail address is: [e-mail]

[ScreamingMeemie]

31. That was excellent Rich! Thanks for sharing that. I think so many

of us are ambivalent about squirrels. I tend to think of them as rats with fluffy tails, because we are overrun by black and grey ones here in the Shores. Thanks again. Great writing. :hi:

[flowomo]

33. thanks for reading it! This week I was feeling ambivalent about...

teenagers. Of which I have two.

www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=4383022&mesg_id=4383022

[ET Awful]

32. *giggle* "Racing Squirrels"

:spray:

I like it :)

[flowomo]

34. yes, one of my favorite lines!

they are destructive little critters, though.