I just got back to my office from the ATM. As I was walking past the County court house, I got to see a) A little bird hopping around with a broken wing and b) a dead squirrel being investigated by another squirrel.
The bird I was familiar with. It has been hopping around at least since yesterday. Sad to think that a creature that could get anywhere downtown in seconds was now restricted to a little patch of ground around some bushes.
The squirrel was new. There were three squirrels at the base of the oak tree. Two were bounding around as normal. The third was walking slowly and carefully towards something. It turned out to be a dead squirrel lying at the base of the tree. The investigator was edging up slowly and sniffing the dead one. Then it put a paw on the dead one like it was trying to wake it. This didn’t work so it put both front paws on it and gave a little shove. It didn’t even seem to notice that I was standing right there watching. Was the dead one a sibling? a parent? or a mate? No way to know, but it was so sad. Will the squirrels even remember the absent one tomorrow? I hope not.
One of the saddest things I’ve seen was when I was working in San Bernardino. The facility was in an industrial area that had lots of room for expansion, so the roads were wide and empty. As I drove in one morning, I saw a dead female duck at the side of the street by the curb. A male duck was pacing round her, looking very distressed. Is it true that ducks mate for life?
There has been this cute happy little bunny around my pal’s house for months. We love to watch is hop around and play.
Last week I saw two dogs circling some object on the ground.
It was my dead bunny friend.
I started crying instantly.
I know the dogs did nothing wrong, it just upset me SO BAD to think of my little pal running scared, and if it had been just one dog I think he might have had a fighting chance.
I was so upset.
Oh those are such sad stories 
Some ducks mate for life, I don’t know if all do. Many birds do… My boyfriend used to work at a wildlife refuge where they raised whooping cranes. All of the adults were paired up. The oldest pair had been together for like 10 or 15 years. The male died, and the female acted so distraught. It was so sad. They eventually paired her up with another male, and I don’t know if they ever euccessfully mated after that.
I could feel the sadness of the little duck. I felt so sorry for him!
Did anyone originally read the title as ‘A sad little vinegrette’?
Does squirrel go well with vinagrette? I think gravy would be more appropriate.
Hypno-Toad – Squirrels call for Old Bay!
My husband thought he was seeing a similar scene one day, with one squirrel who was dead and a little bashed up from being hit by a car (apparently) and another squirrel hovering over the body almost as if in mourning. Not quite. Spoiler box follows for the soft-hearted or weak-stomached.
The second squirrel was actually munching on the exposed brains of the dead squirrel. That ended his “oh, poor sad squirrel” feeling pretty quickly!
You must have seen my post on Old Bay
My mom used to regale (i.e. scare) me with stories of eating squirrel as a child. The way they ate the “best” part would go quite well with Old Bay.
Not for the tame: They’d boil the heads and suck the brains out through the eye holes. Yuck.