Wrong Holiday

It was Xmas morning and I was out walking my dogs before heading over to see my family. In the morning I tend to walk the dogs down a short road that has woods on both sides, and the branches just touch overhead. Except for traffic on the road it joins, it is a quite area. So when something popped and started to fall, I noticed.

I thought it was part of a dead pine tree branch that fell and hit the road with wet, smacking sound. Whatever it was did not bounce. As I looked at it, I saw the thing flop around a bit, and I realized it was a squirrel. It had fallen from 40 feet and landed on its side on asphalt. I usually hear the squirrels running through the trees, and the dogs are keenly aware of any squirrels in the area, but none of us had heard anything.

I walked a little bit closer and saw that the squirrel had righted itself onto its chest. I figured when it flopped over it was its “last throes.” I walked a little bit closer, saw that the gray fur was not moving, and walked away. I was sure it was dead, but if the thing was still alive and dying, I did not want the dogs to torture it. I dragged the dogs into the woods to do their business.

When I came out of the woods, I saw that the squirrel was gone. I didn’t think any scavenger could have got the squirrel that quickly, so I walked down to see if the little guy had crawled off the road. Sure enough, it had, and now that is saw me, it started up a damn tree.

The little fucker had fallen 40 feet, landed on it side, and now was about to climb back up to heights that would scare me. I sat there thinking whether this was sign on Xmas morning from God about the resurrection of his son, and about the holiness of his birthday. Then I realized that any sign that involbed rising from the dead would come on Easter. If a virgin squirrel had given birth on Xmas that would have been a proper Xmas sign. This was just a random event. There was nothing to it.

I hope the little guy keeps a better grip from now on.