It finally stopped snowing so I went out with my husband's snow blower and began the snow removal. The plow ridge at the end of the drive was starting to freeze up, it was about 2 feet high and very heavy.
A gust of wind came and the next thing I knew my forehead was frozen by a blast of fine snow. I saw a little squirrel, it fell out of the tree. It laid in the road, stunned but he got up. He tried to jump up the huge snow bank but he didn't have the strength to make the jump.
The squirrel saw me and began running toward me. It was so cute. I decided to name him Rocky (like Rocky and Bullwinkle from a cartoon that I watched as a child.)
I continued snow blowing. Rocky wasn't frightened. He kept stopping and huddling, licking his little frozen paws. Rocky noticed the single path leading from our open garage door to the street, the path that I had made with the first pass of the snow blower. Rocky, smart little Rocky, began running up the driveway and heading for the open garage.
"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!' I screamed and ran ahead to the garage and closed the door immediately.
Rocky sat at the garage door as if to be begging to be let in. He was suffering. His eyes were bugging out of his little head. I felt so badly for the rodent; I couldn't kill it.
Finally, I thought about getting a box. If I could get Rocky to go in the box, he could at least find relief from the frozen ground. I talked to him. "Rocky, you gotta climb in the box, dude. Come on, I promise not to hurt you."
I pushed the box closer and he walked inside. I tipped the box over and closed the lid. Poor Rocky, he had no idea what was going on, but I assured him that he would be OK.
I put the box near a tree so that Rocky could climb the tree branches and make it back to his nest in one of the mammoth white pines that surround our house.
Continuing my snow removal, I thought of Rocky and how he must be hungry. I had some old sunflower seed that I was going to feed the birds, but Rocky was the lucky boy today... I put the container in the box with him.
I went back to my snow clearing. I heard Rocky chirping in the box. He was giving his buddies the call telling them all that he hit the mother load with bird seed. No one came.
I thought about Rocky a bit more and how he must be freezing. I know that wild animals huddle in winter to keep warm. He had no one to huddle with him; he would surely die if he didn't have something warm to rest on.In our garage I had a bigger box and an old down pillow. I made Rocky a 2 room condo with a big down feather bed for him to huddle and get warm. The mercury is going way down over the next couple of days. Will Rocky make it? I don't know but I do know we gave him a shot at survival.
Who knows if Rocky will remember today if he survives, but if he does, I do hope he stays far away from our house or one of our cats will surely hunt him for sport.
And that my dear readers is the adventure of Rocky the frozen squirrel.
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