Death with Dignity
3 April 2004, 10:28 PM

I know it's sort of morbid, but I couldn't help but notice...

Most animals I see dead on the side of the road are portraits of awful trauma. The sight is usually gross and terrible, and evokes in me feelings of sympathy for the poor animal's brush with human machines.

Squirrels on the other hand, (at least in my area) seem to avoid the more gruesome results of collisions with motor vehicles and instead remain mostly intact after they've died. Moreover, they end up in positions that ... well ... make them look like they died while badly acting a cops-and-robbers shootout. You know the scene. Clutch the chest, stagger around for way too long, gasp a big long breath and then fall heavily to the floor.

Yup, that's the majority of these poor, dead, roadkill squirrels - bad actors, laying flat on their backs on the ground, one paw outstretched and the other in a little clenched fist on their chest...

This weird thought brought to you by waaaay too much imagination...