My dear friend, Myra texted this photo to our chat group of tai chi friends about a bird she rescued from a bucket of water.
She and her son swaddled the bird with a towel to dry out its feathers and left it in the outside sink overnight.
The following morning they discovered that the bird had flown away.
We had to smile at the happy ending to their wildlife rescue.
Art, Tiffany and Keola had gone to the park and saw some children huddled over a baby squirrel that seemed to be ill. Our kids were still in elementary school then.
They brought the squirrel home and put him in a cage with some water to hopefully let it recuperate undisturbed before they could let it out again. They set the squirrel in our family room. I was a little dubious about this. When I checked on the squirrel later, I saw that there were teeny tiny black dots in the water dish. And lots of teeny black dots hopping out of the cage.
Apparently, the squirrel had died which was very sad and the fleas were leaving its body as it cooled. Needless to say, we were all hopping around then to control the situation and had to fumigate the house. We discovered the following day that both kids and Art had flea bites on their body. Not me.
It was a lesson to be learned. We never brought wildlife into the house after that very itchy episode. I see that Myra and her family were more careful than we were.
Bless Myra and her son for their kind heart, and for Art and your children for rescuing the baby squirrel even if it did have a sad end. Having had problems with fleas in the past I am very wary of those things. In our navy days I sat on a driveway checking off packing boxes after arriving at a new home. I remember looking at these tiny black dots jumping all over the driveway. I was eight months pregnant at the time and had a terrible reaction to the flea bites, swelled all over. It was a horrible experience and the owners of the house were mortified as they had not lived there for a couple of years. I never forgot that experience.
ReplyDeleteOh no on that squirrel, you meant well! Once we took an injured mourning dove a long way to the Wildlife centre but it turned out that they put it down, it was best for it.
ReplyDeleteI would never have thought of fleas, but that makes sense. Ugh, what a pain! (figuratively and literally)
ReplyDeletePoor little thing. So sorry about the fleas.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that bird had a happy ending at least, but that was very nice what Art did for that poor squirrel (and your kids). I'm just sorry for the flea-bitten ending! Gee I think my mom would've killed us kids if we brought a hurt animal in our house, and we lived on a farm... so Kay I am doubly impressed. :)
ReplyDeletei have rescued many birds in my day, all have gone well!!
ReplyDeleteIT's a tricky proposal to try and rescue wildlife of any kind...
ReplyDeleteOne summer, when my #2 child was allowed to skip summer school and summer fun, she rode all over the neighborhood on her bike. She brought home so many near dying baby birds that had fallen out of nests. We had set up a lightbulb and bedding material (outside under shelter) and tried to nurse them back to vibrancy with feeder tubes of rice meal. Some made it, some didn't. Thinking back, it was a wonderful summer for her.
ReplyDeleteOne marvelous rescue and one memorable yet failed one. Still proud of you both for making the effort. Yikes though on the fleas. Good thing to keep wild creatures out of your house to heal. Besides the squirrel fleas, birds carry mites which will make you itch too.
ReplyDeleteThe most we do on bird rescue is put them under a bush out of sight of a cat and hope for the best. Life in the wild is survival of the fittest. Apparently it is in Texas too.:-/
ReplyDeleteApparently my SonIL kept a squirrel in the house one winter or part of it. I don't know the whole story.
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday, I saw a squirrel with only a stump for a tail and before I had gone 50 feet I saw another one with no tail. Since we went 18 days with temperatures south of freezing by 25 degrees or more, I assume we now have a generation of squirrels that will be tailless. Though it is 75 degrees warmer than the coldest point, there is still a lot of snow on the ground and not many squirrels out and about but I'm keeping my eye out for them... and I don't plan on bringing any inside now that I've read this post.
ReplyDeleteI am personally quite squeamish about getting up and close and personal with animals, but my husband I am quite sure is in animal heaven with beloved critters.
ReplyDeleteI would never bring any sort of critter inside, but outdoors is another matter. So sad to hear about the dead squirrel with fleas looking for a new home!
ReplyDeleteYou won't often find critters with fleas. Obviously the squirrel was over come by fleas.
ReplyDeleteThat ended up being an expensive good deed for Art.
ReplyDeleteI've sat out on the deck with birds that have knocked themselves into windows, if only to keep cats away while the birds recuperated.
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