Beware the Ides of March

On Friday, 15 March, Lilah and I were coming home from school and as we were just about to reach the driveway, I noticed our neighborhood squirrel lying in the middle of the road, with her tail still moving in the breeze.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a visceral and physical reaction to seeing animals in any kind of pain... and although it was clear that our local squirrel was no longer living, it was still traumatic (for me!!) to see her, lying there, not only directly in front of our house, but also smack dab in the middle of the road, where eventually, soon enough, a car was going to flatten her.

And then Lilah saw her, and she began to cry.

So, as the grown up in this situation (I didn't want to be the grown up!  I wanted my Mom to come and take care of the poor thing and I wanted to go cry on the porch!), and since I was the Mum now, I had to be grown up about our squirrel.

First thing first, I asked Lilah to go inside and draw a lovely card saying that we would miss her and that we knew she was in a place now that was filled with nuts and berries and climbing trees.

So she went inside.  (phew!)

Then, I stood in the middle of the street, right over the squirrel, and phoned Animal Control to ask them to come and retrieve the animal.  Now, although the woman on the phone was nice enough, Animal Control won't necessarily do ANYTHING about an animal in the road for anywhere between 2 and 3 weeks.  Seriously?  You are going to allow that much time to pass, and that many cars to drive over this street until you come and pick up an animal that - right now - only looks like it is asleep on the ground?

Shocking.

I tell her that there is no way I am okay with that, as this squirrel is directly in front of my house, and I don't want my daughter to be traumatized by it every time she goes out front to play.  

The woman on the phone says that I am welcome to pick the squirrel up myself and put it in our garbage bin.

(WHAT?!!!!!)

I thank her for her time and hang up.

And then I go and get our shovel and a shoe box, and relieve the squirrel from the middle of the road... at which point a fellow animal lover drives up and parks in front of my house with a bag and says, "I had driven by a few minutes ago and seen this poor animal, and I couldn't leave her where she was!  You are such a good soul to be taking care of her.  What a lucky squirrel to have so much love.  This is utterly good karma..."  She was very kind, and so very Californian.  

Anyway, in the end we waited for Steven to come home and then we filled her box with flowers and grass and nuts and berries, and we buried her in our back garden.

And now we are forever memorializing her in the Blog.

To the memory of one very special squirrel.  

Sleep well.