“At the core, besides the fact that squirrels are cuddly and cute, it was a mother in distress,” says D.C. resident Nikki Peele.

Kārlis Dambrāns / Flickr

Squirrels are among Nikki Peele’s favorite animals.

They always have been, says Peele, a current Trinidad resident and the founder of the Congress Heights on the Rise blog. She’s known among her friends for saying prayers over dead squirrels on the side of the road.

That’s why, as Peele detoured to pick up some blueberry muffins at the Trader Joe’s in West End while coming from a physical-therapy appointment Wednesday, she stopped abruptly when she saw a squirrel hugging a car tire on Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

“I’ve tried to rescue other squirrels,” Peele says in an interview. “But this one, I thought it was dead.

“When I got close up on it, I realized that what I thought was its insides was really a baby,” she continues. “I realized the squirrel was alive, and so that’s when I instantly started freaking out.” Peele looked around for help and posted a video of the scene on Twitter.

In response to her tweet, friends, strangers, and even D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh referred Peele to two animal-welfare organizations based in the District: the Humane Rescue Alliance and City Wildlife. Meanwhile, a small group began gathering around the squirrel, including a man who told Peele that he had experience helping cows give birth but “squirrels were out of his wheelhouse.” (The members of the group were wearing masks, according to Peele.)

The five or so strangers brainstormed ways to tend to the adult squirrel. They soon discovered that it was giving birth to two kits, not one, and was holding on for life.

Peele remembered her “bug-out bag” — equipped with food, water, a blanket, an umbrella, and other supplies — that she keeps in her car in case of emergencies, and went to retrieve a few things while a man in the group called the Humane Rescue Alliance. She says the group went into “trying-to-save-the-squirrel mode” immediately.

“At the core, besides the fact that squirrels are cuddly and cute, it was a mother in distress,” Peele explains. “And at a time when our very existence feels uneasy and unsafe, normal life right now feels very hard. It just felt like in that moment that, [for] this creature, it shouldn’t have to be this hard.”

Maggie Veith, an animal-control manager at the Humane Rescue Alliance, arrived on the scene around 3:30 p.m., and determined that the mother squirrel was lethargic but responsive. “Our main priority was to safely gather the animals and transport them to rehab as soon as possible,” Samantha Miller, a spokesperson for the animal-welfare organization, tells DCist in an email.

The rescue alliance transported the squirrels to the care of City Wildlife. But, on Thursday morning, Jim Monsma, the latter organization’s director, called DCist with some sad news.

After receiving the overheated mother and her minutes-old babies around 4 p.m. Wednesday, City Wildlife staff stayed late into the evening to bring her out of shock, administering her a series of tests and medicine, and putting the animals in an incubator. While an X-ray revealed that the mother had no other babies on the way, she was found to have blood clots as well as a high temperature. She had no external injuries and a normal weight.

The staff tried everything they could, says Monsma, but it was too late. The mother squirrel stopped breathing at 6:30 p.m. and was euthanized shortly thereafter, along with her two kits.

As heartbreaking as the outcome may be, Monsma says it isn’t uncommon: Once an animal is in poor enough a condition where a human can pick it up and put it in a box, it’s likely already in pretty bad shape.

“But we always try for the animal, because you never know,” he adds.

Told about the news, Peele says she still walked away from the situation feeling hopeful about the kindness of strangers and the generosity of D.C. residents. She says, for her, the incident had an added significance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people generally are wary of strangers and keeping physically distant from one another. (After the event, Peele says she made a donation to the Humane Rescue Alliance, encouraging others to do the same.)

“To really see how, even despite all of this, people took time out of their day and a moment out of their lives to say ‘I’m invested in this creature that doesn’t even have a voice,'” she explains, “that just gave me faith that we might not save everybody all the time; we may not save all the creatures all the time; we may not save all the little kids all the time; we may not save all the seniors all the time; but maybe it’s the ones that we do save — that we try to save — that give us hope that there can be better.”

This story has been updated to remove the phrase “spirit animal” from the text in accordance with DCist style guidance.

Filed Under: animals, city wildlife, d.c. squirrels, humane rescue alliance, mary cheh, nikki peele, squirrel,