Tribune Editorial Board member Michael Lev’s “I’m not nuts. I took a squirrel to the hospital” (Thursday’s Perspective) brought to mind my encounter with a squirrel that is still very vivid in my mind. I was sitting outside on my back steps when I noticed a squirrel with its neck caught in the electrical wires high above the alley. There was nothing I could do except envision this squirrel dying and then hanging there for months while its poor little body decayed before my very eyes.
But another squirrel came to the rescue and began pounding on the trapped squirrel’s head. Over and over, he did this, sometimes turning away as if to leave the scene for good, only to return to his attempts to free his friend.
Perhaps the trapped squirrel had had enough of the battering of its head because with one fell swoop, it flipped itself into a half-turn and was suddenly free.
I swear this really happened. I’m not nuts either.
— Kathleen Melia, Niles
