Sou’wester or Sunglasses?

Walking to the library this morning, I surprised a mother squirrel and her tiny baby who were on a wall next to the footpath. They both scurried away along the wall, and that’s when I noticed the young squirrel couldn’t use one of its front paws. I couldn’t tell if it was deformed or badly swollen. The baby ran into its mother’s arms, but as I then walked closer, the mother jumped down from the wall and ran away. Left on its own, the baby then limped towards me, before hiding itself in the undergrowth.

Have spent the rest of the day worrying about this young squirrel (the photo really doesn’t show how tiny it was), you can see the poorly paw in the photo. As I walked away, I could see the mother watching from a distance, am hoping that she then returned to look after her young. And I’m hoping the paw was just swollen and will quickly heal. I’m just a big softie...

In other news, after a very wet night and after having watched the weather forecast with a yellow warning for thunder, heavy rain and floods, I set off for the library dressed for the wettest of weathers. As soon as I walked out the door, the sun came out! And since then, we haven’t seen a drop of rain, not that I’m complaining!