Up Lifting Story - The Tail of Two Squirrels

If this story doesn't get you going, I don't know what will. The heavy snow storms we had a few weeks ago wreaked a little damage on the old homestead. The wife and I awoke Friday morning to find our beloved 60 plus year old oak tree lying on its side, almost in the street. Needless to say, we were devastated. I immediately called my favorite arborist to come out and give me an assessment of the situation. Upon his arrival, and his inspection, the news was not good. Seems the larger half of the tree split down to the roots, and severely damaged the root system of both side. The news was bad; the entire tree would have to be removed. That being said, we set up an appointment for the following Monday for his crew to take down the entire tree.

Monday morning rolled around and just like he said, his crew of about 7 men showed up on my front lawn, chainsaws in hand. They used ropes, chainsaws on poles, you name it, and they had it. His wood chipper machine ran non-stop. I believe if a person were to fall into that machine, you would be chopped up into crumbs in just seconds. That machine was unbelievable. I watched for the first few minutes, and then went back into the house.

I had sat down at the computer, starting drinking my coffee checking my email, the usually stuff, and was reading a nice article on the WSJ about how those party crashers at the White House could possibility end up doing some time for that little stunt. When a couple of the workers started knocking on the door, like in hurry or something. I ran out to the garage to meet them and they were waving me over by a large branch of the tree they had been working on. None of them spoke English; but this one guy picked up what looked like a bunch of matted leaves, and grass. He said look, look, "squirrel". I looked into the pile and sure enough, you could see two pink baby squirrels. They were so young, they didn't even have fur on them yet, and their eyes were closed. The baby squirrels couldn't have been more than maybe 2 1/2 inches long each.

I told the guy to wait there while I went to find a box for them. When I came back, we filled bottom of the box with saw dust from the tree cuttings, and put the squirrels and what was left of their nest on top of that. Then we added a little extra saw dust, and off I went to our vet’s office, "Cross Timbers Animal Medical Center". I carried them in inside the box and showed them to Dr Dena Lock (My Favorite DVM). She told me that she was not equipped to take care of "Wild Animals", but she did know some who was. So she called ahead for me and I was on my way. When I arrived at Main St Veterinary Hospital in Flower Mound, the Tech that helped me was very nice. She explained that since it was a wild animal, it would have to be released back into the wild, and it required a certain amount of paperwork. She also went on to explain that Dr. Smith had done this before with other types of animals with success. So I signed the paperwork giving them over to her and thanked her for taking on such an effort.

Well, it’s been a few weeks since all of this happened so I thought I would give the good Doctor a call and see if the little babies survived. She wasn’t in the day I went by, they said she was working out of her house. So I ask if they would call her and give her my information and maybe she could call or email me something to let me know how things went. Low and behold, today in my email box was the most beautiful pictures, and very nicely worded email to me. I was blown away. First of all I was glad they survived, because when I found them, the squirrels basically did not have any fur, and the outside air temperature was something around 25 – 28 degrees. Their nest was pretty much destroyed. And on top of that, no telling where their mother was, or how long she had been gone. I am just glad that everything turned out good. I may have lost a great old tree, but another will grow in its place. The squirrels Aladdin and Jasmine will hopefully be eating live oak nuts for a long time.

A Very Special Double-Double Whammy Shout-Out for
Dr Denise Smith, DVM
Main Street Veterinary Hospital

Below is a copy of the email I received from Dr Smith.  Click on the email image for a larger view.