dead or sleeping?

we had to call in the big ladders because there was this little squirrel whose tail was blowing in the breeze and his little clawed hand was sticking out of our rain gutter.

i was surprised it didn't make me cry, but i figured, these damn squirrels are so well fed, he probably just died of old age. no worries. just lay down one day for a little sun in the rain gutter, and his number came up.

nothing abnormal about that.

a couple days later, i look out again and he's gone. i am figuring, well, they did a good job, quickly removing him (i didn't want him stinking since we're opening windows and such now).

but i just got in, and there was a message about not being able to find the little guy and they've searched everywhere.

which makes me laugh because we look out there all the time and he was gone really soon after we saw him, not moments, but days (we didn't keep looking at him once we thought him dead, that's just morbid).

but i'm told, they never extracted mr. squirrel, and i don't see him there. so, that means, either he's super squirrel and rose from the dead, or he was just napping.

the ramifications of this make my head spin. they make me laugh, they make me cry, they make me believe.

belief has been elusive, the fragile butterfly or flower that my heavy hand crushes every time it tries to grasp it.

but this little surprise is one i'll not forget soon. one i needed for so many reasons. not the least of which, that which i thought dead was merely sleeping.

what a thought.