A Squirrel's Tale

Life has a funny way of trumping what you think are your priorities.  Between my day job, caring for all the animals, and certain family matters there has been little time to pen a story here and large numbers of photographs of those come into residence still await processing.  Yet one of the matters that [...]

“The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague.
Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?”
(Edgar Allan Poe)
It had been two years since our last visit there, but things don’t really change much out at the farm.  To be sure, without the horses the pastures become more [...]

“Mais les yeux sont aveugles.  Il faut chercher avec le cœur.”
(Antoine de Saint Exupéry)
   
They all break my heart, these lost or injured souls whom the Fates place in my hands, yet there are those who reach into my soul even more deeply than the norm.  Our latest little houseguest is one of them.
A midafternoon call from my [...]

“Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.”
(St. Francis of Assisi)
  
I don’t know about you, but recent events have left me alternating between worried feelings of helplessness and deep anger.  To watch the financial sector meltdown, a real-life, grotesque, McArthur’s park cake left out in the rain, followed by weasel word excuses of [...]

“How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
(William Shakespeare)
  
There isn’t anything that’s a whole lot better than a baby squirrel.  Even after years of raising them, their development continues to fascinate me. 
Despite this year’s sabbatical, we have 9 orphans in residence, each one growing like the proverbial weed.  [...]

“The fundamental issue is the moral issue. ”
(David Attenborough) 
  
When I started working as a wildlife rehabilitator it was harder than it is now to make contact with other, more experienced professionals since that most handy and valuable tool, the internet, was not yet a household item.  This was particularly true for those of us here in Michigan [...]

   
“There is no cure for birth or death save to enjoy the interval.”
(George Santayana)
   
Just over 2 months ago, I received a frantic call from a friend of my mother.  Apparently she’d spotted a cat tangling with a squirrel in her backyard, but the squirrel was unable to get up the tree when she scared away [...]

“You do not see the river of mourning because it lacks one tear of your own.”
(Antonio Porchia)
 
Wildlife rehabilitation is rather seasonal work, and when its pace picks up, combined with an average, oft-intense 60-hour week day job, the days and nights begin to fly by so fast my head spins.  This was one of those weeks.  [...]

Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
(Oscar Wilde)
 
Nine years ago today I found a baby squirrel.  She came into my life unexpectedly, laying immediate and eternal claim to my heart, tasking me to labor with Love without a single regret on this path of selfless service.  And that path has led me places and [...]