Baby Squirrel

I was reminded of how fragile and precious mortality is this weekend.  Luckily nothing terrible happened to my little family, but there are always moments where I think, "wow, that was close, how are we all still alive?"  (Of course there are thousands of moments like that every day, I have four boys).  We had lots of moments like that this weekend, but there was one that keeps sticking with me.

Josh and I went on a little Mama-son date night Friday night.  We went to see "Oklahoma," a play my brother is in.  When we went to get in the car, we saw a little squirrel on the ground not running away.  It was just a little baby and so precious.  It wasn't moving much, so I figured it fell out of the tree or something, but I hoped his mom would come and rescue him or something.

 

Turns out he wasn't rescued and the next morning he was still there, still alive, but barely.  I felt horrible.  Tys and I wished there was something we could do.  The boys told us we should take it to the hospital or vet.  I wanted to, but what on earth would we do, "Hi, we would like to pay whatever it takes to heal this little guy."  Yeah, not happening since we don't have that kind of cash.

I tried to explain that to the boys and that Daddy and I didn't know how to heal a little squirrel.  So they both (Josh and Caleb) vowed they would both become veterinarians so that if animals ever were sick, they could heal them.  I think that is a great idea.

Tys was awesome and took care of the little creature as best he knew how so that it wouldn't suffer any longer than necessary.  But we both felt miserable.  The baby was seriously adorable and we didn't know how to make it better.

Then of course there are moments like this that make it sound even worse:
(the boys were talking to Grandma Cooper via Skype)
Josh: Oh Grandma, there was a baby in our yard that was sooo cute, but it was sick!
Caleb: Yeah, and it was dying and so Daddy killed it and now it is in heaven.
me (from across the room): It was a baby squirrel, not a baby human!!

Horrible, but hilarious.

But this was beyond precious:
Caleb praying:
"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless the little baby squirrel.  He is dead and in heaven.  Bless him to be resurrected."

I don't think there is anything more precious than the heart felt prayer of a little one.