Sammy Squirrel - RIP

I was out walking through the neighborhood tonight when I was reminded of a night just like tonight thirty five years ago. I'm not sure what triggered the memory, but it might have been the overwhelming number of rabbits and squirrels out grazing in the grass.

In the town where I grew up there were actually "blocks". We walked around the "block", not the culdesac, not the circle but the "block". There were no planned neighborhoods with fancy names, retention ponds, green space and pools. Just street after street of houses that fit nicely together, side by side with backyards that backed up to....backyards.

At the age of eleven I had many more boy friends than girl friends. It could have been because I liked to play ball, climb trees, ride motorbikes, dig in the dirt, escape out my bedroom window late at night and shimmy down the down spout and play with roadkill.

Several of us (3 boys and me) were out late one summer evening trying to find something to do. We were discussing options while we walked around the block. On the street directly behind mine we came across a deceased squirrel (we'll call him Sammy). Sammy was lying (or laying, I can never get that right) peacefully in the street. He was in pretty good shape, except for the fact that he was dead. He was not smashed and there was no blood. It looked like he had been trying to cross the street, was missed being hit and died of a heart attack brought on by the near miss.

Billy (and his name really was Billy) picked Sammy up with his four and a half fingers (Billy lost half of his pinky finger the summer before when we tried to hammer an M80 into a pipe that was too small and the M80 exploded prematurely taking part of Billy's finger with it). Anyway, back to Sammy. We couldn't leave poor Sammy in the street to be run over by a car and become filling for the small potholes where he lay. We were going to give Sammy a proper burial. A classy burial.

Back in the 1970's we didn't lock our front doors, and we definitely did not lock our car doors. Billy carried Sammy a bit further until we found the perfect burial site. A brand new Cadillac!! I opened the car door and Billy and I placed Sammy on the driver's seat, sat him up perfectly straight with his little hands on the bottom of the steering wheel! We closed the door and peeked in the window to make sure Sammy was still sitting up nice and straight! He was and the little guy had a white knuckled grip on that steering wheel! He wasn't letting go, he was going out in style and we could actually see a small smirk on that little guy's face!

We never went back to check on Sammy that evening. We would have stayed around for introductions but it was getting late and I think I heard my mom calling. I do hope the owner of that brand new Cadillac enjoyed his surprise the next morning when he opened his car door. I know Sammy did!

Rest in Peace, Sammy!