I'd had a post all planned out for you today. It was about the hurricane and all. I'd even started typing out my rough draft -- which I've left below. But as happens so many times, life had other ideas.
I'd gotten up early this morning, let the dog out, and tried to get the cat in. She was acting strangely, and kept running over to sniff at something beside the house. I walked out there to look, but as it was still dark, I didn't see anything. The cat was still very interested in that spot, so I got a flashlight and went back out, and there it was. She'd killed another critter. I'd thought it was a possum at first, but after the sun came up, I saw it was a baby squirrel.
Darn cat! I was going to throw it over the back fence, then I heard it squeaking. It was still alive! My first thought was to put it out of its misery, as it was so young its eyes weren't even open, and the cat had chewed it up pretty badly. But then, I though, "No! I've got to at least try!"
I got onto FB, and posted in one of the local groups asking if there was a rehabber in the area. One person responded, and directed me to a website called Central Mississippi Wildlife Rehabilitation. I called them, and the person who answered told me there was someone closer to my area. She gave me the number of Wild Again In Mississippi, Inc. I called her, and made arrangements to bring the squirrel to her. She told me to keep the baby warm, and instructed me to heat a bottle of water in the microwave and wrap it in a towel. I was in the middle of doing that when I suddenly remembered, I had some of those chemical body warmers in my bug out bag!
See? I knew my obsession with collecting survival gear would come in handy some day.
I activated one, wrapped it well, then put it into the box with the baby squirrel, and headed out to the rehab place.
When I got there, I met a very nice lady named Estelle, who is a retired nurse turned wildlife rehabilitator, and is licensed by the state. She let me name the squirrel, so naturally, being something of a bookworm myself, I chose the name Pattertwig -- even though he was a red squirrel, not a grey one...and lived in Narnia, not Mississippi...and could talk...
Anyway, I asked if I could take some photos, and Estelle gladly gave me permission, so here you go:
She said straight up that given how many cat bites he had, it would be a miracle if he survived, but she would do everything she could for him. I hope the little guy makes it.
Batten down the hatches, she's gonna blow!
While we were all sleeping last night, Hurricane Ida strengthened into a category 4, and as of this writing, sits just 5 mph shy of being a cat 5. By the way, I learned something new yesterday. One of the many meteorologists I follow had posted that the more symmetrical a hurricane is, the more powerful it becomes. That's why the big ones are all so picturesque.
I'm in the cone this time, but by the time it gets here, she should have lost quite a bit of steam:
They're saying we could still have some rough winds and heavy rains, and to expect some power outages as well. In the light of that, I got out and did a little hurricane prep yesterday evening, which mostly consisted of bringing in the plants from the back porch,
and taking my flags down -- just in case.
Since my back porch was cleaned off anyway, I also drug out the old pressure washer and cleaned the moss off of my bricks. It grew back, even though I sprayed those bricks down well with bleach water.
It's just so cool and damp in that spot, it's hard to keep them moss free. Then I turned the cat's outside shelter right side up, so she's not laying directly on the bricks, and made the lid the lid again. I've got a couple of bricks on top of it, but I'm wondering if I should add a couple more, it being lightweight Styrofoam and all.
And the final step in my storm prep was to light my Jim Cantore Candle.
It smells pretty good, too.
By the time I'd gotten back from the wildlife rehabber, I discovered -- well, I heard it on the radio in the car -- Ida had made landfall in Lousiane as a high end Category 4. But on the way there and back, I saw truck after truck after truck headed South -- Linesmen, heavy equipment operators, even some army trucks.
All going to help those affected by the storm. Because this is America.
It's what we do.
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