I saw a squirrel get murdered on my way to work yesterday. The killer was the tires on the car in front of me. The timing could not have been more perfect for that squirrel to run into the street - right into the passing car. The person driving never saw it coming, but once she hit the squirrel, she swerved ever so slightly toward the curb and her brake lights came on. She looked in her rear view mirror and saw the little guy laying in the road. She realized what happened and I knew she felt bad about it. I don't know how I knew that, but I did.
When he got hit, his little body flipped up in the air and spun around twice like he was doing a somersault, then he landed on the pavement motionless. And when he hit the ground, a brown perfectly round ball slowing rolled away from his little body. That little ball bothered me. Was it a nut from inside his cheek or was it a little squirrel poop that got knocked out of him? It just added to the intensity of it all. That night, I found myself googling pictures of squirrel poop on the internet, because it was weighing on me and I wanted to know what it was. It said squirrel poop is usually little logs, rounded on the ends. So, I'm still not sure but, somehow, the thought of it being poop bothered me more than if it was a nut, because it just made the whole horrible event just that much more undignified for that poor little guy who didn't deserve to die that day.
I'm gonna be thinking about that squirrel for a while.