Could be considered gross, weird, or gross.
Not a lot of people have an affinity for the squirrel. In fact, most people really do not like the squirrel. And I understand why in a lot of ways. There was a crazy attack squirrel that lived in my friends yard growing up deemed Psycho Squirrel. It would chase you walking to or from the front door and bite you if it could.
But, this summer I fed a lot of wee bebe squirrelios and found that the little Douglas Squirrels were super cute with their reddish/orange and grey coloring and anything wee bebe is pretty cute - obviously. I mean, they eat nuts with their little hands and shit. Pretty cute.
I also vehemently hate the fact that roadkill is a thing. When a living being is killed by a car on a roadway and then run over about 75 times and/or until its tissues are paper thin, it just bothers me. It's largely, if not entirely, the humans fault that this happens - with our cars encroaching upon an animals habitat and we confuse them. Squirrel or not, it bugs.
On Christmas Eve afternoon, my pop, brother and I piled in Big White - a 1967 3/4 Ton Ford Pickup (it has a choke) that my mama learned to drive on way back when. We were driving over to the Derby House to check out the construction (looking good!) and were behind a car that hit a squirrel.
It was still moving when we passed.
After checking out Derby, I got in the other car with the other half of the family - my mom driving - and decided that we needed to stop and pick wee squirrel up. It's not right leaving him there to be run over time and again, especially during the holidays.
So my mom pulled over, she and I hopped out and using a blue tarp, I picked him up (likely run over at least 3-4 times since we passed about 30 minutes prior). Couldn't you holiday drivers swerve a little - JEEZ!
Sure, it's gross. But it just seemed like the right thing to do. It's also not the first time that she and/or I will do this separately or together.
RIP Douglas Squirrel. You might not be missed by many, but your life was worth something to us.
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