A squirrely character.

This is kind of gross, but whenever I pass roadkill, I wonder if the poor thing is really dead, or whether everyone just thinks it is, so no one cares. Like, if someone hit me with a car and smashed my leg, chances are I wouldn't be dead, but wouldn't be able to move very well, either. I've only stopped to check a couple of times.

Once, when I was living in Avila Beach, I saw a squirrel flopping around on the side of the road. He wasn't walking, but more like flipping from side to side. So I stopped and went up to him, to see if he really was hurt, or just rabid or something. And it looked like his leg was messed up, so I went back to my car and got a jacket, and scooped him up. Because it's not like they're wild animals.

So I got him in the car and kind of wrapped him up and put him on the passenger seat. I drove home, then went into the house to call a vet. Apparently they don't take wild animals, but they directed me to a rescue. The lady was really nice, and told me to meet her that night at this school in San Luis Obispo. So I went back to the car to check on the little guy, and he had escaped the jacket. He was now hiding under the seat. I was scared to put my face down there to see him, so I waved a hanger around on the other side of the seat, to trick him into thinking, "Danger! Go the other way!" Well, it worked, but then he ran over to the gas pedal and then up into that little hollow area that leads to the center console, where he got his head stuck with his ass still hanging out. So I had to grab his poor broken body and pull him back out, all the while saying "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" So I finally got him out, and he tore up my arm for like a minute until I wrestled him into a packing box (lined with the jacket for his comfort).

That night I met the lady and she wanted the squirrel but not the box. She unceremoniously put him into a garbage bag and thanked me. I still wonder if he didn't end up as her dinner.