A well-intentioned squirrel rescue is not for the faint of heart. That's just what one Texas girl learned recently as she attempted to get a feisty, furry, and furious friend out of a blow-up swimming pool. In the encounter, which was all caught on video, the determined animal lover is far too optimistic about the rescue mission just before it goes terribly and hilariously wrong.
The video was posted on YouTube just a few days ago, on June 7, and it quickly went viral. No surprise there — it's one of those perfect internet moments that just begs to be watched … and watched again. And then shared with friends.
Here's how it starts. The girl from Lumberton, Texas, wants to get the little guy (or gal) out of the pool. "Don't touch it," her mother's voice warns repeatedly. It's almost like an omen. Of course, the girl doesn't listen to her mom, and that's when things get … a little nutty.
The girl doesn't heed her mother's warning because, well, no one wants a soggy squirrel on their hands, or in their yard, for that matter. She pays no attention and carries on with Operation Save the Squirrel. Good for her! The world needs more animal lovers.
She searches for something to help her make the rescue so she doesn't have to use her hands. "I need gloves!" she says. But she doesn't have gloves.
"Get a board," her mother calls to her. Instead, she finds a chair to give the little guy a lift out of the water.
It seems like a simple-enough plan, right? Squirrel is trapped in pool. Squirrel sees a way out. Squirrel climbs aboard the chair and escapes a near-drowning death. Right? But that's not exactly what happened.
The girl hops in the pool with the squirrel and chases him around, but he seems determined to evade the chair. "I'm saving you!" she encourages him. "I'm saving you!" As she follows him around, her cries become slightly more hysterical. "Let me save you!" she yells.
Finally, the squirrel hops onto the chair. For a moment, it looks as though everything has gone according to plan. But then things go a little off the rails. The mission is almost complete when the squirrel keeps climbing up the chair instead of hopping off onto dry land.
Then …
The squirrel launches straight at his rescuer! The girl shrieks, throws the chair, and jumps out of the pool. As for the squirrel, well, he winds up right back where he started — back in the blow-up pool, awaiting another savior.
The clip is utterly hilarious, and YouTubers dubbed it an instant classic. We can already feel the memes coming, hopefully highlighting the girl's hopeful cries of "I'm saving you!" and "Let me save you!" It's the stuff viral memes are made of.
Luckily, according to the video's caption, posted by ViralHog, the squirrel did make it out of the pool unscathed. "I called my daughter outside to see a squirrel trapped in my granddaughter's kiddie pool," it reads. "And of course, being the animal lover she is, she had to attempt a rescue."
The caption continues, "The squirrel was not quite as grateful as she had hoped! It leaps at her face as she recoils in horror and runs away screaming. She came away with a scratch on her arm, and after a cautious second attempt, she did indeed rescue the squirrel."
Thankfully, no one was hurt in Operation Save the Squirrel. And we're guessing the scratch was worth both the successful rescue and the hilarious viral clip that came out of it. Viewers can't get enough, and we totally get it.
If you need us, we'll be over here, watching it on repeat.
