1/14/07--The Adventures of Babs the Squirrel

You ever have one of those days at work when something comes up that just seems so, I dunno....borderline ridiculous that it takes on a life of its own?
Well...such a day happened recently...leading us to the story of:

Babs the Squirrel.

So my neighbor at work, Debbie is a big animal lover.  That's really nice, except she's more of a (shiver) CAT lover than I am.  (Cats...UGH)  Anyway, we usually tell each other about the various adventures of our pets and the other day she told us of a rather unusual "rescue".  Debbie had some workers coming to her house and while she was waiting, her parents came over.  Her mom walks in and tells Debbie that there is a squirrel in the middle of the road that appears to have been hit by a car, but is still alive.
Being the good hearted person she is, Debbie goes out to check on the little critter.
She finds it laying there, not bleeding but apparently still injured in some way.  She moves it out of the way of traffic and calls the local wildlife rescue center to ask them what she should do.  They tell her that unfortunately their rescue ambulance is not available and they inquire as to whether or not Debbie can bring the animal to them.
This lead to the first of my questions:

1) Rescue ambulance?  For a squirrel?  I couldn't help wonder if maybe they would also have a little stretcher for the squirrel.

So Debbie says that while she can't bring the animal because of the workers coming to her house, that her parents could bring it in.  So the squirrel is transported (in a box--naturally) to the wildlife rescue center.

So about a week had gone by and Debbie is telling us the story at work, and mentions that she had not called to find out how the animal had been doing.  She calls in and speaks to one of the employees to get the info.  She gets off the phone and tells us:

"Well, apparently the squirrelis fine.  Apparently their computers aren't really up to date so they told me that they couldn't give me an up to the minute report."  (on a squirrel?)

Now, here's where it just started to get a little bit ridiculous.  Debbie tells us that the rescue center had advised her that the squirrel was an adult female that seemed to be doing better but hadn't been released yet.  I felt like the squirrel needed to have a name, and for some reason completely unknown to me, the name "Babs" popped into my mind.  Which should tell you where my mind is on certain days.  So our little group at work began talking about what sort of life "Babs" had as an everyday squirrel.  Debbie tells us that she had noticed Babs across the street from her house, in a tree, apparently building a nest.

"Maybe," I wondered, "Babs was trying to lure a young male squirrel up to her tree for a little romance.  You know, get him up there, maybe put some Journey on the stereo, and who knows WHAT would have happened!"

We wondered whether we should take a photo of our little group at work and send it to the wildlife center, so Babs could have some pictures next to her hospital bed.  You know, sort of a "get well soon" sort of thing.  The rescue center told Debbie that when Babs was recovered, that she would returned to the area where she had been found.  Debbie hoped that she would be told, so she could keep an eye out for her.

Babs the Squirrel.....I smell a Disney cartoon.

Later,
Jeff