Monday, September 15, 2008

Oak Trees, Squirrels and Hurricane Ike

We had an interesting Saturday, when Hurricane Ike roared through our area. While the rain and wind were pretty strong, thankfully, we were only mildly inconvenienced (we lost power for about 18 hours), unlike our friends and neighbors to the South in TX & LA.

For the families of squirrels in our oak trees, though, Ike was life changing. We when awoke yesterday, we found squirrels nests among the other leaves and branches littering our yard. We spent many hours yesterday restoring order to the yard. At one point, as dusk approached, we heard lots of noise and commotion coming from an area of landscaping containing many small trees and bushes. Closer inspection revealed an adorable baby squirrel who was probably thrown from the trees in the strong winds. While our cat was very interested in the baby, she did not try to harm it (although we did lock the cat up in the workshop for the night, just to be sure). Amazingly, though the baby was very young (eyes were barely open), it was very good at climbing and made its way up one of the bushes into a dense area of leaves and branches where it would be more safe. Since its parents were nearby (making lots of noise), we decided not to bring it to animal rescue.

I'm hoping the boys will want to draw pictures of it and maybe write a short work of fiction about the baby squirrel's adventures as part of our school work. Maybe we'll write it outside, to enjoy the beautiful weather we're experiencing since Ike.

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