16 November 2008

Leaving their mark

There is a small scar on the left side of my upper lip that I've had for the past year and a half. It's not something to laugh at but I suppose the way I got it is somewhat comical, mainly because it's the worst injury I sustained in an incident that could have ended more seriously.

I was rushing to the back door to hand a nut to a squirrel who was standing there, staring in.

Let me repeat that: I was rushing to the back door to feed a squirrel.

And I do mean rushing. Rushing so fast and so carelessly that I hooked my leg on the leg of our dining room table and went crashing down, face first, on our ceramic tile floor. I did not even have time to try to break my fall with either of my arms - and perhaps that is a good thing. I at least must have turned my head to the right, somehow doing the right thing, before I hit the floor which soon became splattered with blood, as if a crime scene had occurred.

Yes, even with a Jackson Pollock style outpouring of vital fluids on our beautiful tile, I continued to crawl to the door, nut in hand, and yes, I fed the squirrel (who, by the way, was still waiting there, quite unsympathetically.)

Crazy? Perhaps. But nothing more horrible had happened - and after a trip to the ER to get my seriously split lip stitched back together by a plastic surgeon, I was on my way.

That squirrel, by the way, had been a personal favorite of mine for two years at least. He was a sassy male, a very in-your-face kind of guy, and when he migrated to another territory three months later, I missed him terribly.

I still do.

These animals come and go in all our lives, don't they? When I see the scar on my lip, I think of him. But most of the marks they have left on my life are less visible (I'm grateful for that).

But they are there. Most definitely, they do remain.

6 comments:

Henry the Dog said...

I really laughed at your post. Ooops! Hope I was supposed to. It's the type of daft thing my mum would have done.

squirrelmama said...

Oh yes, Henry. Laugh!! I know I certainly do!

Anonymous said...

So what should be designed is a special Purple Heart for injuries that rehabbers suffer in the course of action.

And perhaps the scar is a visible something, but I suspect that inner "marks"--certainly not scars--run far deeper and are of the more satisfying variety.

Cheers,
--Chet

squirrelmama said...

No doubt about that at all, Chet. I would hardly call those other marks scars. Maybe...badges of honor?

Jan4insight said...

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(maybe this will take the sting out of the scars)

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Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Haha! Sorry to laugh at your pain but I could see myself doing the same thing and my own favorite squirrel peering in puzzled why the nut was so slow in coming. Those sassy ones really do steal your heart.