Sunday afternoon, my friend came frightened to my room telling that a mother squirrel is helping its pup which a predator had cut by its throat behind his kitchen. I went to the scene and got disturbed by the screeching that was there. I also found that there wasn't a single pup, but two of them- one which was about to die and the other which had fallen from its drey into the kitchen sink and struggling to come out of it. For a while I left them, thinking that the mother squirrel would take care of them.
After a while the injured pup was being fed by ants and mother squirrel was not be found anywhere. I think this is what differentiates between human beings and animals. In human beings normally motherhood would take precedence over safety. To make this judgement more neutral, I would like to add that human beings are more capable to defend themselves than animals and hence this reverse precedence to be found in the later.
I have always been afraid of animals simply because I don't understand them. Anyway, I decided to take care of the orphaned pup. I brought it in a shoe box, covered it with clothes, spread bits of cornflakes and cauliflowers in it and put two spoons of milk before it, not sure if any of them would suit its palate. So frightened was it that it couldn't find any of them giving it a solace. I googled the internet, read various tips to help pups gain normalcy again and none of them looked encouraging enough. Some of them suggested a syringe feed of 'Esbilac'(?) and warmed pedialyte (?). Some suggested to visit a vet ASAP. Internet tips sometimes become so complex that problem looks bigger than it actually is.
I decided to give it some warm covering of clothes; I think it liked. But it hadn't taken anything for hours. Not sure if it could survive like this, I decided to feed it with some water in my palms. It certainly took a sip of it, but I couldn't judge from the look it gave to me whether I had irritated it or helped it. Some internet sources had also suggested to swab its genitals so that it may excrete and feel relaxed. I tried that even. I felt it clung my fingers tightly after this. As usual, I was left guessing if I had helped it or troubled it.
That was too much for me. I couldn't take the blame of killing it when I actually wanted to help it. We have washed that blood stained floor, disposed the killed pup so that mother squirrel may come looking for the lost one and put it in its drey.
I don't know if the mother squirrel would come looking for it or not. I don't know who will find the pup first, its mother or predators. I don't know if I am running a chance to loose it for ever by not giving it a night before it befriends me. I don't know if it found some comfort or not when it was in distress. And probably I would never know......
