Last week we were enjoying the fall weather in our back sunroom, with the windows open, when we heard the most sad sound.

It sounded like a hurt animal of some kind, just crying. A mournful, lonely, sad sound.

We looked out the window, and there, laying on the fence, was a poor little gray squirrel, just crying his little squirrel eyes out. Arms and legs splayed, head down, he looked injured. He just lay like a lump of squirrel on the fence for about 20 minutes and cried. “Is it hurt?” we wondered. Or was it attacked by the neighbors dog and chewed up and spit out? Or just depressed? The way it was crying, we didn’t know, but knew it was in some sort of trouble.

In squirrel emergencies, sadly, we are unprepared. We don’t have tiny squirrel medical instruments, or a squirrel hospital nearby. So we watched, and waited to see what would happen. After about 20 minutes of crying on the fence, the squirrel hopped down and began foraging in the yard, like nothing was wrong.

Robert decided the best cure for a crying squirrel would be some delicious nuts. He found our stash of whole nuts, and took a handful to throw out the backyard door at the poor squirrel. One of the nuts landed squarely on the squirrel’s head, Robert has really good aim. For a moment, we thought the nut killed him. But no, the squirrel shook himself, looked around, grabbed the nut and ran away.

We still don’t know why the squirrel was so upset. But the nuts from heaven hopefully solved whatever squirrel problem it was coping with.