A Squirrel Goes to Jail

 

            Yes, that really happened. What’s a squirrel doing in jail, for heaven’s sake?

Was there a crime? Maybe not, he evidently went of his own free will.

            First, a little background:

            I have been a regular correspondent with a man who has been on Death Row now for seventeen years, probably more, for committing murder. I am old enough to be his mother, and until she died, I did write also to his mom, living in a small coal-mining town in the Appalachian mountains. Since then, he has called me his adopted mother. I have visited him several times. In our conversations, I discovered a talented poet and writer. We were able to get the poem published, and he has been in contact with a publisher interested in making known his other writings. In the meantime, one of my last letters (May 2020) from him had such a humorous story in it, that when I shared with some of the Sisters, and my friends, we laughed and giggled without end.

            So I asked him if I could share it with our readers. He gave me full permission. I have it here just as I received it, with his original expressions:

    

Now yesterday there was some excitement on death row. This cell house is 3 floors and death row only takes up the bottom floor. Yesterday while they were having a general population let in, a squirrel ran in and came on death row. I was out working, getting some newspapers passed out and Gabby was dust mopping the rec. area. So the guard had us trying to catch the squirrel. The squirrel was a little over half grown. So we got net bags and was trying to corner him and catch him with the bags without hurting him. Which is easier said than done. Smile. Which Gabby and I were raised in the country so we knew what it would be like going in. The squirrel runs into Gabby’s cell and gets in the bottom of his locker. So Gabby holds a net back over the opening while I reached in from the side to try and catch it. And yes, he could have bit me but I’ve been bit by countless animals and dogs well over 100 pounds. Of course the squirrel is jumping all over the bottom of the locker trying to keep me from getting hold of it. Gabby pulls back the top of the net bag to watch me try to grab it and the squirrel jumped out of the little opening, ran over his head and hung on to his back. Smile. I was trying to get up in time to grab him off his back. When I raised up, he jumped off Gabby’s back and ran back over to the walk I live on and ran into my cell. I was laughing so hard that I was having a difficult time trying to keep up. My cell door is closed. The squirrel jumps up on my bed, then lays on my pillow with all 4legs laying straight out, like he was getting him a good rest. We got to the front of my cell and he just laid there looking at us and flipping his bushy tail around as if to say you can’t catch me. Smile. It took a few moments for our lazy guard to get down to my cell and ask the control tower to open my door.

            When my door opened and I started in, he jumped off my pillow, ran under the toilet and out the bars. He gets half way down the walk, stops and looks back at me. As I walked toward him, he ran into the rec. area. Again he stopped and looked back at me. When I got close to him he ran out the bar gate on death row just as the main front door opened. He ran out the door and less than 10 minutes later he was sitting on the wall behind this cell house eating an apple core. I never thought I’d be squirrel hunting on death row but this really happened yesterday. Smile.

So what?  An innocent squirrel finds himself with inmates on Death row in a state penitentiary. He brings excitement, and a bit of joy and fun to men who seldom have occasion for either. And the story brought joy to me too. I pass it on to you. Sometimes God sends one of His creatures with a message for us of His love and care, and His sense of humor.

What has God sent you today?

Sr. Mary Carol Hellmann, OSB