The little squirrel

It was a cool fall evening in North Georgia. The sun was beginning to set among the tall silent trees, its orange distant light making its way through the myriad branches and to the hard cold earth. My family and I had just arrived back to our house which sat atop one of the foothills of Sweat Mountain. We had been on the road for eight hours, returning from a gymnastics meet in Panama City, Florida. Our neighbors across the street had been taking care of our animals for us while we were gone, five cats, two dogs and a fish, and I decided to walk on over to let them know we were home and to get the key to the house back.

I knocked on the door and was invited inside. I was talking to the matriarch of the family and two of the children, both college students, when their big black cat came up on the front porch with a young squirrel trapped in his jaws. We could all see that the squirrel was still alive and aware. The two college students, T and C, ran out onto the porch to save the squirrel from the cat, but by the time they were able to get it free from the cat's grip, the life had all but left the body of the squirrel. It lay there motionless in an all too familiar position. "It's dead." said T. But before an air of disappointment could settle in among us, I instinctively picked up the body of the squirrel and opened myself up. Reiki began to flow and I could sense immediately that something was happening. I knew, somehow, that our friend was not yet gone. I sat down on the front step and let the Reiki flow. I wasn't sure what they were thinking, but felt that T and C were watching with great interest, that somehow, they too could sense what was going on. I remember T saying a few times that the squirrel was dead, and indeed, it was motionless in my hands. There was no rise or fall of it's small ribcage, no twitch of muscle or nerve or any other sign physical that it would ever scurry across a patch of fallen leaves again, but that didn't bother me. I could feel the current of energy reviving that squirrel, guiding it back into its young form. After a few minutes I felt the small body move in my hands and noticed that it was starting to breathe in short shallow breaths. A rush of love moved through my heart. T and C saw it too and were amazed. "That squirrel was dead." I heard T say. After a few more minutes the squirrel opened up its eyes, but they were thickly glazed over and I knew it wasn't fully present yet. It closed it's eyes again and continued to breathe. A few more minutes went by, the Reiki continued to flow into the squirrel and when it reached a point where it began to breathe more easily, it opened its eyes again. This time they were clear and bright. "There you are." I said. She was back. "No way," said T. "That squirrel was dead." I looked up into their faces and saw their smiling eyes. C didn't say a thing. She just smiled.

I continued to let the Reiki flow and we began to talk. I told them about some experiences I had had doing this healing work, about the humming bird too, and after a while I called my daughter over to come see and pet the squirrel. The animal had become so docile that we gently handed it back and forth among us so that everyone could touch this little miracle of life, but eventually all she wanted to do was bury herself in my jacket. I tried to put her back on a tree so she could run off and be a squirrel again, but she wouldn't leave and only wanted to climb back into the crook of my arm.

We could all feel the cold night air coming on. Our first freeze of the season had come while we were gone and I didn't want to leave her out in the cold after the experience she'd had, so I took her home and put her in a small cage we used whenever we came across some little animal we could help. I did some research online, and discovered that this little animal would take some specialized care, and also that cat bites were deadly to squirrels because of the bacteria in the cat's mouths. I decided to take her into a rehabilitator I knew and left her there that night. In the morning, I called to see if she had made it through the night. I was curious about the cat bite poisoning, but was elated to find out that she had made it through fine and was released back into the wild soon after. I felt so grateful that I could help this little animal in this way. What a gift it was. What a gift life was. I was truly humbled and felt privileged to be alive, here on this planet with all this beautiful life. What a trip. I love it.


Peace and Love,

Jeff.