My high school girlfriend’s family rescued a litter of grey squirrels from a nest after their mother was hit by a car. They fed them using doll bottles and raised them for a few months. Her dad built a tall cage for them where they could later come and go as they pleased. That was their home base where they could always find food, water and security.

They were very tame and we could hand-feed them and they’d crawl up our pants and shirt and sit on our shoulders. They would greet us like dogs.

The neighbor behind the house didn’t think the suburbs were any place for tame squirrels so he set a trap, caught all six of them and cut their heads off.

My girlfriend was devastated.

One night after a bit of drinking, I drove around the block, leaned my bike against a tree by the road a few houses away, walked over, unrolled his garden hose, unscrewed the nozzle and fed a few feet through the mail slot of his front door, turned on the water and walked to my bike and drove home.