Return to Sender: A Hero to All Species

Dear Readers:

You may recognize "phillybits" as a frequent commenter on Phillyist. But Phillybits (capital "P"), aka Ray Skwire, is also a great local blogger with a love for grammar that rivals our own. He also seems to have a love for animals that rivals our own. And that's what this post is about.

See that squirrel up there? Cute, right? Until you realize that it's not climbing the fence – it's stuck in it.

Now, I happen to love squirrels. I even helped to save a few baby squirrels back home when their mother was run over. They're all over Penn's campus, and I used to sit outside and watch the squirrels for hours at a time. Sure, they're disease carriers. And sure, they can wreak absolute havoc in your dorm room if you make the mistake of leaving your window open. (That was one of the first things they told us at new student orientation.) But despite that, there are few things that amused me more than watching one of those adorable little rodents drag a hoagie roll up a tree.

Now, I love them, but I'm not sure that I would have had the guts to do what Ray did when he encountered the stuck squirrel. Let's kick over to his narrative, shall we?

At first I tried to see if I could get him all the way through but his hips were just too wide. I then tried to back him out and had I been able to get on the other side of the fence, I probably would've been able to...

Finally, someone came by and asked what was happening and asked if there was anything they could do. I said if she had bolt cutters, that would really help.

So she headed back home and in the meantime, I just tried to keep the squirrel calm by shhh'ing him and gently rubbing his back and his belly. I also managed to pull him halfway back which took some of the pressure off his hind end.

After about 10 minutes, the girl came back with bolt cutters and after one snip of the fence and separating the fence enough, this little guy was finally free...

You can read the whole account on Ray's Flickr page—including the story of the assholic owner of the fence—but in the meanwhile, we wanted to let you know about his good deed, small though it may seem to some. Because it shouldn't go unmentioned.