The Raccoon in the Sewer

It's very rainy and a little chilly as my husband and I leave my restaurant. We hurry to the car and turn on the heat, despite it being 80 something degrees out. I shiver a little and settle in the seat while my husband pulls out. As we pause at a stop sign, I look out and down at something sticking out of a storm sewer. I gasped as I saw a little distressed face and two very human-like paws.



"It's a raccoon," I am immediately sick to my stomach as I tell my husband to stop. I jump out of the car and go to it's rain soaked prison. The little beastie makes eye contact with me and tries to shimmy himself down through the grate, but no luck. His head gets caught and all that's peeking out is his nose and two little feet. It looks as though I just told him this was a stick up.



I talk to him, as if he could understand me, and try to let him know I will help him. I've had previous experiences with raccoons before, such as feeding them by hand after calling them from the forest, so I think he may have understood my intent because he stared straight into my eyes as I stood over him. I thought of my cat at home and how much they resembled each other and my heart sank a little lower.



I got back in the car and discussed options with my husband. Should we call animal control? What else can we do?



"I know," says my husband " Go back to you restaurant and get some oil. I'll try to lube him up so he can slip through."



"Well, how can I go back? We can't leave him. Someone will run over him!" I was feeling a hint of desperation rise in my voice.



"I'll stay here with the umbrella and you go back with the car and get the oil." He pulls the umbrella from the back seat and walks over to the little prisoner in the street. I race back to the restaurant and ask for a cup of oil. My co-workers look at me, but concede to my strange request.



"For Kaite, anything..."



I quickly explain the situation, which just left them more confused and I race out the door back to my Knight in Shining Armor and his little ward. I handed him the cup full of oil and as he lubes up the raccoon I call animal control. Some help they are! They keep bankers hours and aren't even in on Saturdays! So here I am watching my darling husband oil up a raccoon in a sewer grate and I wonder...why do I care so much? I suppose it's the golden rule coming into play. If I was stuck in a sewer grate because my butt was too big, I hope someone would oil me up and save me from myself!



So we are at our wits end with this. The grate is too heavy for just the both of us to lift and no one is going to help us...so we thought. When all hope seemed gone, a Suburban pulls up and two young men jump out of the back. They want to help, although I don't think they knew a raccoon, and not a flat tire, was our problem!



They lifted the grate and that raccoon fell out of it lickety split! It would almost be comical, if we weren't so concerned. I think the young men were more amused with us, rather than with a slippery rodent. So he scurried off to safety in the bowels of the sewer system, and I was relieved to say the least.



I now have more faith in humanity and I admire my husband even more. If we could have compassion for a wild animal, how much more should we have for each other?