If Only They Could Talk

Last Friday I was in the backyard. I noticed there was blood drops all throughout the snow from one end of the yard to the other. What was up with that? I was filling a couple feeders and set a couple small piles out for the Squirrels. It wasn't long before I noticed whoever was bleeding, was in the yard with me, as I saw fresh pooling at some of the feeding spots.

Okay, so it's one of the Squirrels; but who? My heart sank when I soon figured out it was my little buddy Ripper. You know Ripper, right? He comes to my hand for a big safe feed away from all the others.

I happened to see Ripper at one of the new seed piles and when he left, there was another blood pool. Pool is a good term as the pools were the size of my palm.

My other indicator was Ripper's whole demeanour. Normally he's following me around like a puppy and is quick to get on my arm and run to my hand. He wasn't like this at all. As soon as I neared him, up the tree he went. The last time he was like this was back in the spring when he was half bald and dealing with a common mites issue.

I immediately got my live trap out. He needed some medical attention. I didn't have a lot of time left with my morning and canceled all my other plans before work. He did not return. I had thought about calling in to work to deal with this but I know Ripper doesn't live that close to us. He's also great for disappearing for weeks at a time. I should add that I managed to catch another Squirrel in the trap that morning. When there's 8 or more bombing around, it's tough to catch the one you want. It's also why you should never leave your live traps unattended.

I went to work and would watch out for him on the weekend.

He eventually showed on the weekend. He wasn't bleeding any more. He was very agile and quick, looking at him you wouldn't think there was ever anything wrong with him. He even came to my hand for a couple nibbles of sunflower, just not on my hand. He also took a whole walnut and ran off.

I've not seen him since Sunday now. I do hope he's okay. I can only imagine what happened to him to make him bleed like that. Perhaps it was a superficial wound, like how we can knick ourselves in certain places and bleed like crazy even though it's not a serious cut.

It would be so much easier if they could just tell us what's going on, eh?

In other news, Fitz has been on the road to recovery in the Toronto Wildlife Centre. His eye was opening more and more every day. Last update I got, his left eye almost completely open but it was not responding to light. They were going to do another assessment a week from that, being on November 18th. The hope was that the medication was causing the no reaction, that it was still in the back of his eye, and would clear out over some more time. I am hoping that as well. The cute thing I learned is that Fitz made himself a friend with another Pigeon in care. They were often seen sitting together. I'm glad his stay at TWC has not been a lonely terrifying experience. Let's hope he's still on the right track to healing properly and will be back home soon.