Grumpy Old Ganz
“All’s well that ends well”
In last week’s editorial, I talked about my cat Baby Girl. I mentioned that when she was an outside cat she would bring me “catches”...dead or alive. Now to get back to the ones she brought back alive.
On two occasions she brought me a grouse, which I was more than happy to eat and share with her.
A few months later, my daughters and I were outside enjoying the weather when Baby Girl came trotting out of the woods with a chipmunk. It wasn’t until she got closer that we noticed it was still fully alive and the fun really began!
One of my daughters wanted to save this chipmunk from certain death but also wanted to hold and pet the chipmunk.
The other daughter and I quickly let her know she should leave the cat and the chipmunk alone. But our words fell on deaf ears as she ran and got the live critter out of the jaws of death.
She was holding the live...traumatized...chipmunk who had just encountered a near-death experience. She began to pet it as the other two of us were telling her she was going to get bit and that she should let it go. Again, our words fell on deaf ears.
Suddenly, we saw the chipmunk go airborne and heard “ouch”!
The chipmunk landed safely on the ground and scurried away. And all the while Baby Girl was “yelling” at us for letting her prize possession get away.
My daughter ended up with a small bite on her finger and we decided it was worth a trip to the ER just to be on the safe side.
It didn’t take long for word to travel that someone was in the ER with a chipmunk bite. Several had to stop in to see what was going on…with us laughing about the whole ordeal.
When the doctor came in, he chuckled and said, “I’ve never heard of anyone dying from a chipmunk bite or getting rabies.”
He applied a disinfectant and a band-aid. After an explanation of how and why she got bit, the doctor gave her an antibiotic and asked if she had learned her lesson…suppressing a smile. Her response was, “I just wanted to hold it and pet it!”
To this day, I have retold that story many times and several have been while I was at the hospital on separate occasions.
You never know what will be the highlight of someone’s day, or in this case, the entire hospital staff.
All’s well that ends well...and hopefully, my daughter learned a lesson...