As discussed in Episode 14 of the Wise Eats Podcast:
My Squirrel Story: Finding an Injured Squirrel in My Back Yard
Who says Wise Eats has to be about health and fitness all the time??
The night of recording Episode 14 I ran into a crazy situation that I decided to talk about on the show. I discovered an injured squirrel in my backyard. It appeared to have been hurt from falling out of a tree or something. Initially, he appeared to be seriously hurt and very scared. I waited for quite a while to see if he would move, but he didn’t, and when I walked up on him I noticed that he was frantically trying to drag himself across the grass with one arm. It looked to me like maybe one of his limbs was broken.
Instantly, my heart sank because I’m an unconditional animal lover and now had to deal with an injured squirrel in my backyard! I also had added pressure because his buddies and family were clearly concerned/observing the situation. By the way, we live in the metro Detroit area so this is a small yard right in the heart of downtown Mount Clemens, a suburb of Detroit.
After calling my Boston Terrier and Golden Retriever away from the scene, I asked my neighbor, who is fond of squirrels and feeds them often, if she had any advice. Her solution was to call the police. I called the police who informed me that they didn’t do house calls for wildlife and that I basically had 3 options:
- Put the squirrel out of its misery
- Find a shelter to take it to
- Let nature “run its course”
After several calls, I located a shelter about 30 minutess from my house that would accept the squirrel for free, which was a relief. After some serious contemplation, I decided to leave the squirrel alone for a short time while I visited my Dad and explained the situation to him. With a heavy heart, I returned home, prepared to take the squirrel into the shelter. Oddly enough, when I got to my backyard, the squirrel was gone.
At the end of the day, nature had taken its course, one way or the other. While I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with the situation any further, I wondered what actually happened to the squirrel. Was he just stunned and finally came to his senses? Did he muster the strength to power his way out of the yard despite his injury? Was he scared to move and waited until after I had left? Did his family and friends come and help him get out of there? Or did some other animal (stray cat, bird) get a nice dinner that night? I’m going to live with the idea that the squirrel lived happily ever after and that he’s out there making wise choices right now!
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