Author Peter DeHaan

Last week, my daughter and I embarked on an animal rescue of prime importance.

I’m not talking about the kind of liberation you might see on TV, like a beached whale, escaped circus animal, bear on an iceberg, or large game stuck in an inexplicable situation.

This rescue was the backyard type; the predicament was a window well. (You may recall in “Oh Deer” that the wildlife near my house is the decidedly smaller variety.)

It was important because I didn’t want to watch an animal die—or deal with the consequences if it did, which would be inevitable without human intervention.

Our basement has two egress windows and over the years many an animal has gotten themselves stranded in the window wells that surround them.  Many a successful rescue operation has been completed. 

There was one rabbit and a couple of birds (the escape trajectory is too steep for some of my featured friends).  In this case, a pail, lowered on a string, along with a dose of patience, does the trick. 

Other unfortunate critters have included frogs, toads, and each spring, newts (salamanders — I’m not sure if they hatch there or what).  These can be extricated by hand.

Aside from the mysterious arrival of the Newts, the rest fall into the opening.

That leaves the moles. These buggers tunnel up from the bottom.  Never mind that it is four feet deep and the bottom is lined with wire mesh and covered with gravel.

Somehow they work they’re way in.  As soon as they exit their tunnel, the gravel caves in and they are unable to dig back out. 

In their panicked attempts for freedom, they work themselves into a frenzy and quickly succumb. Not a pleasant end. Usually, I don’t find them until it is too late.

This time, Laura saw him right away. He was moving too fast to catch by hand and the pail technique didn’t work as its circular shape provided ample room for escape. 

A new method was needed. It turned out that a square Tupperware container taped to a long board was the tool for the job.

After the sixth or seventh try, I was able to free him (so he could go dig up more of my lawn.)

So if you ever call my office during the day and I don’t answer, it might just be that I’m out on another animal rescue 911.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

After my Gopher post on Friday, I was contemplating a clever tongue-in-cheek entry about the assortment of “wildlife” in our back yard. 

You see, we live in a subdivision in a decreasingly rural setting, which limits wild creatures to decidedly smaller and less wild varieties.

In addition to gophers, rabbits are the most common, as are moles, some squirrels, an assortment of birds, toads, and even newts that appear every spring in a window-well.

Oh, yes, there was a neighbor who tangled with a skunk one night in his backyard, but that was years ago.

Although there are deer nearby—as evidenced by the road kill on a nearby thoroughfare—there has been nary a one in our built-up subdivision during the 20 years we have lived here. That is until last Saturday.

At noon, a swift-moving object caught my eye. There were two deer, only a few feet from our deck, skittishly darting across our back yard. They were in an understandable panic.

As my wife went for her camera, they made their way to our next-door neighbors and stopped short. Something spooked them and they did a 180 and then dashed between our houses towards the front. 

My wife, camera in hand, heads towards the back of our house, as I move to the front. I’m stymied at providing effective location updates to her in a timely manner.

The deer leap through our front yard and across the street. My wife gets to the front door just as they duck behind that neighbor’s house.

As she’s looking out the front door, I’m at a different window watching them disappear behind the house next to that neighbor.

In a flash, they are gone. Even if I could have directed my wife to the right vantage point at the right time, I am sure that the resulting shot would have been little more that a blur of brown fur.

So lacking photographic evidence, you’ll need to just take my word for it. 

I did see two deer, really I did.

Do you like this post? Want to read more? Check out Peter’s book, Bridging the Sacred-Secular Divide: Discovering the Spirituality of Every Day Life, available wherever books are sold.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.