October 1st
It goes all the way back to my childhood years when I would walk outside our sliding glass doors that lead to the deck, and I’d hop in the swimming pool—making sure an was adult present, of course—and do handstands underwater. Our home sits near a creek, so much to our dismay, some small creatures have been known to find their way into said swimming pool… thankfully, I’d find them either before or after swimming. (I assume it’s not pleasant to find these creatures while you can’t breathe and have to paddle away from them, but that’s just my guess.) I have always loved animals, and I wanted to be a vet as a kid, so I tried to save these little creatures at all costs. In my youth, I’ve found a scared newborn bunny, a chipmunk that took one step too many in the direction of the pool, a few salamanders, and a few dumb frogs that just thought they found an extravagant lake. I’d scoop up these creatures from our pool and try to revive them by either drying them off, feeding them, or simply providing them with a plastic container as their makeshift shelter. However, I was not very good at saving these creatures; the salamanders always ran away and so did the frogs, and that little bunny eventually stopped breathing, even after I fed it via a dropper. My claim to fame is that I saved that drowning chipmunk… but he bit me as a Thank You for saving him from his little adventure in the pool, so I flicked him from my hand, and I think he landed in the bushes—I did not see that little guy after that.
I was also the same way with my plants. Surprise me with a succulent? I’ll somehow dry it out. Find a cute cactus? You know, the plants that claim to be virtually impossible to kill? I have killed two thus far. But for some reason, living in a house my last semester of college has turned my life around, because I now officially have not one, but eight plants alive and well!
