The other day, after responding to call at a home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, police officer Caitlin Russell was unexpectedly summoned to help in an unrelated incident.
As she returned to her patrol car, Russell spotted a pair of baby skunks — wandering aimlessly on the sidewalk. It appeared they were orphans.
“I saw they were alone,” Russell told The Dodo. “I couldn’t walk away.”
And with that, the skunks were alone no longer.
Russell was a bit hesitant to get too close the babies at first, fearing that they might spray her. But her worries were eased as they seemed to welcome her approach.
“They were very open to my presence, and were totally fine with me holding them,” Russell said, adding that she’d never been so close to a skunk baby. “They are so stinkin’ cute!”
Russell called animal control for backup. She and another officer made sure the babies were safe in the meantime.
Turns out, Russell had been at the right place at the right time. Days prior, near that same spot, animal control had rescued two other baby skunks — fellow orphans believed to be from the same litter.
Now they could be reunited.
“I just love animals,” Russell said. “I am very thankful for that.”
The baby skunks whom Russell had found that day are now with their siblings at a wildlife rehab facility, where, with any luck, they will grow up to one day return to the wild — together.
“They are in such good care now and their future will be nothing short of great,” Russell said. “[It] made my heart very full and happy to get them reunited and safe.”
0 Comments