Squirrel Attack! *Edited

As I mentioned before I have a furry creature story! Several days ago it was National Squirrel Day or something like that. So it had me thinking about the time a couple of years ago that Sophie was attacked by a squirrel. Yes attacked.

It started out as a regular playdate at a friend's house. Sophie and her friend were playing in the backyard. I was watching from the backdoor. Sophie was chasing the dog. The dog had something in its mouth. I thought it was a chew toy. Sophie and the dog ran to the side of the yard where I could no longer see them from where I was standing. This is when things changed.

Emma (the friend) came to the backdoor and told me that Sophie was crying. I figured she fell on the patio. So I asked why just to be sure. Emma replied and I will never forget her words spoken so calmly , "because of the squirrel." At this point I was sure she had tried to pet a squirrel and it had run away. Sophie LOVES animals and this was something that would have upset her. So I went out to comfort her.

This is when I saw it. My sweet Sophie standing on the patio crying, arm outstretched with a squirrel hanging from her thumb.

I ran to her. Things are a little chaotic in my mind at this point. So I yelled at the squirrel to let go of my baby. I guess I thought the squirrel would say to itself, "Oh I did not realize this was your baby. My apologies." That is not what happened. It continued to hang onto Sophie's thumb. So I hit it... it let go and ran off.

I grabbed Sophie and ran to the bathroom with her. She was crying - the screaming kind of crying. I was near hysterics. Our friends did not know what to do. As I was washing her hand I was on the phone with the doctor. They said to bring her in. I gathered our stuff, yelled goodbye, and ran to the car. As I was buckling in my crying child I noticed that around her eyes appeared to be turning blue. I really started to freak out. What was happening to my sweet baby? Oh then I remembered the girls had been playing with make-up earlier. Whew! She's not turning blue...just eyeshadow.

I drove too quickly to the doctor. When I got there they were so very calm. Like people come in with squirrel bites all the time. Our doctor had contacted an animal bite expert and to them this was not a big deal. What?!?! A squirrel had bitten no attacked my child. And do you know why?

She had been trying to rescue it from the dog. It was not a chew toy the dog had in its month. It was a squirrel and my animal loving daughter had tried to save it.

So in the end she was fine. No rabies. Thank God. We did have her finger x-rayed to make sure her bones was not affected by the bite and she was place on antibiotics in case of an infection.

Apparently there has never been a case of rabies transfered to a human from a squirrel. I know this because I spent time on the phone with a very nice man from the health department who read to me from the CDC handbook on animal bites. We were fortunate to be able to test the squirrel just to be sure.

So there you have it. The story of my daughter being attacked by a squirrel. Needless to say I don't have a fondness for squirrels and am not sure they should have a day of recognition. We have now spent time telling our children never to touch wild animals. Even if they think it would help the animal.

*This event took place 2.5 years ago.