Bernard's act of kindness

This delightful tale is courtesy of Bernard Mollberg who was the savior of the little bushy-tailed hero.

I was walking by one of our rain downspouts and I heard a noise. Kind of a scuttering, and scratching kind of sound. Then I heard splashing ...... and more scratching ..... more splashing (our downspouts connect to PVC pipe which carries water to our cistern and always have some water at the bottom).

I removed the metal downspout that connects to the pipe .... and …… got a dog leash, and lowered it down the pipe. But no sound and the leash wasn't long enough to reach the water.

So I got a second dog leash, clipped it to the first one and lowered again. I slowly lowered it down. Felt some movement & slowly pulled up the leash.

Felt some weight .... then: nothing. Lowered it again. Felt the weight on the leash again. Slowly pulled up the leash.

Slowly, slowly, higher and higher and at last from the top of the pipe I see:

A SQUIRREL IN THE DOWNSPOUT !!!!!!!

He was pretty weak. Been soaking in 40˚ water, maybe a pretty long time. He seemed unsure of my intentions.

Finally got him over the edge.... he almost fell back down once.

Dry land at last. Finally I give him a nudge with a broom handle, and off he goes.

I've now got a great name for a new fiddle tune.

All I have to do now is write one.