The Great Squirrel Rescue

I took Lanie for a scooter ride the other day, she was naturally dressed like Elsa, and I had Jack on his leash. Sam was supposed to be playing online Risk with a friend. That involves being on Google Hangout and Risk at the same time, preferably on two different devices. Chris wasn't home.

So Lanie and I got about 5 houses down when my the mom of Sam's friend starting texting that it wasn't working. I told Lanie we had to go back when she spotted a squirrel lying on it's side, smack in the middle of the sidewalk. She peered at it and had a very hard time leaving it, meanwhile Jack wanted to play with it or eat it, unclear.
I finally get Lanie turned around to go back to the house. We got the front and I asked her to wait for me. I went inside to get Sam up and running, and finally got the friend and his mom on Google Hangout, just as Lanie burst in to tell the kids that she found an injured squirrel. They were out the door in a flash, barefoot, and I was left holding the iPad trying to explain. So I chased them down the street, with the iPad and the dog. Of course the iPad cut out a few houses down so we had to repeat the whole exercise.
I got Sam back inside with and finally set up, the dog inside and went back outside to find Vivian with a snow shovel with the squirrel on it parading up the street with Lanie/Elsa. To make it even better, the whole time this had been happening, a neighbor was being socially distance surprised for her birthday by family with a cake and balloons. So my children ran around them to get to the squirrel, to return to the house, and then to "rescue" the squirrel.

Long story short, Vivian built the squirrel a nest, with a roof (because it was raining and windy during this whole experience). They cut it up apple and got it water and wanted me to go to our neighbor who is a vet to get advice. I didn't. Eventually the squirrel somehow propelled itself out of it's nest and lay on the ground next to it, still breathing. I was trying to put together a raised garden bed, but was getting updates on the squirrel (who they thought perhaps had Coronavirus or a head injury). 

 The squirrel did not make it through the night and when Chris finally reappeared, he got to bury it. The big kids understood but were really sad. Lanie thought his mommy squirrel "took him to her nest, because his brother and sister squirrel were very sad. Then she gave him medicine and a treat, that was one single cupcake."

 Just to completely make the whole experience as traumatic as possible, the children decided to make time capsules. This was a great project that took a few hours. (I did have to talk them out of putting $20 in it though, which apparently they had done in the past). So of course, the first place Vivian digs,  there is the squirrel tail. I heard her gasp and turned around to see the fluffy tail.

The buried the capsules in a new location, next to my raised bed that I somehow completed. The squirrel can rest in peace.