A New Life

Yesterday I set out to begin overcoming my exhaustion built up over the past three months. I slept until ten o’clock. Then I got up and ate an orange, and went back to bed until 11:00. Then I spent a good half hour soaking in a tall tub full of hot water and fragrant bubbles.

In the afternoon I resumed the avocation I’ve had to give up for the past two or three years, due to various family crises: wildlife rehabilitation. I took in a 10-day-old squirrel. He has fur, but only a velvety fuzz. His eyes are still sealed shut.

Emily, the 13(?)-year-old who lives next door, expressed a desire several months ago to be my assistant this summer, so she came over for her first lesson.

She saw a CD of Mozart music lying on the kitchen counter and said, “What if we name him Mozart?” So we did.

We gave him some warm Pedialyte to drink and injected some IV solution under his skin to rehydrate him, and checked him all over, and weighed him, and set up a warm place for him to live until he is old enough for a cage.

Later this morning I will start him on full-strength formula. I will also pick up a buddy for him from a fellow wildlife rehabber who has 14 to choose from. Wild animals should always be raised with others of their own kind.

I look at him and my heart feels warm and happy. He will be as therapeutic for me as I hope to be for him.

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