I completely understand your feelings about “Chirp.” About two weeks ago, early in the morning, I was outside. Suddenly I heard a kind of pop and plastic sliding on the road. It sounded like a car going by had popped a tire. From where I was (it was still dark outside), I could see something dark in the road. Not wanting anyone to run over it and possibly flatten a tire, I put my shoes on and went to take whatever it was out of the road.
When I got there, I was surprised to see it was a racoon. I felt bad for it, but if it was dead there was nothing I could do. Then it moved, trying to get up. I don’t know where it came from, but suddenly, I went into rescue mode. I ran to my house and grabbed a towel. I wrapped the towel around the racoon and carried it to a safe area on the side of the road.
I’ve never dealt with anything like this before and didn’t know what to do, so I called the police desk and they gave me a couple of wild animal rescue numbers. I left a message at the one that would be open soon then paced around, anxious, hoping to get the racoon some help as soon as possible. I didn’t want my “saving” it to end up being worse by making it suffer. But, I had no idea of what to do. I didn’t want to take any more risk with getting bitten or scratched, but I also didn’t want it to suffer.
It was a difficult thing for me to go through. My family thought I was nuts to worry about a racoon. I even cleared out a box to take it to the vet, but by the time I had my “racoon box” ready, it had moved from the side of the road and hid in some tall grass nearby when the sun came up. Putting it in the box and taking it to the vet would have been a very bad idea. I could just see me trying to drive with a racoon loose in the car. That could make a funny movie scene, ha-ha.
Eventually the rescue volunteer came and collected my racoon. But I was so worried about it! I didn’t realize I had that much love in me. Animals are awesome and it doesn’t take much for them to steal your heart — no matter what kind of animal they are. I think that we are able to connect with them on an invisible level that cannot be explained or understoood. But I felt it, and it felt good. My silent friend.
