FOUNTAIN, CO—Friday’s severe hail storm caused record damage throughout the area as well as flash flooding, particularly in the burn scar areas of years past which have not yet healed. The total impact in terms of dollar amounts has yet to be determined but is estimated to be in the millions.
Among the wreckage, one family of squirrels lost everything as the bough where they have resided for the past 5 years was beaten by fierce quarter-size hail for over 20 minutes, then finally broke off, tumbling down. William Tail, the family patriarch explained, “I thought we all were gonners; thank heaven that a van was parked under the tree and broke our fall. We dashed for the protection of a wooden deck nearby where we waited out the storm.”
Tail’s son, Nutty, was still shaken three days later and could mutter only, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling…”
Although Tail’s family has experienced hail storms in the past, they’ve not suffered much loss before, usually needing only minor repairs to their dwelling, but this time, they lost everything. “We tried to salvage what we could, but really it was a total loss, our home was a scattered mess of soaked, broken twigs. The worst is the loss of all our family mementos, Nutty’s school projects and such; I will really miss that ash tray he made for me out of peanut shells, and oh, his leaf origami was exquisite!”
The squirrel family plans to rebuild eventually, but for now are calling the deck their home. Mrs. Tail [Bushy] said, “I wish we could stay here for a while, for Nutty’s sake. I don’t know if we can get him to move back into a tree any time soon.” Although it seems like a logical thing to do to stay under the deck, William is concerned about the dog [Phoebe, a 2-year old Springer Spaniel] that calls that yard home. “So far she’s been curious, but not much else; the trouble is, we can’t trust that she won’t get all 'canine' one day and snatch one of us.”
The other squirrels in the neighborhood are helping the Tail family search for a suitable location to rebuild and have also committed to help in the building process. They expect to have things ready within two weeks. The Tail family is grateful for any donations of food and building materials; look for their Go Fund Me page for details of how and where to send your donations.