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"How ASOIAF helped me save a dying squirrel" and other examples of how ASOIAF has affected your life


Moon-Pale Maiden

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I know that 'A Song of Ice and Fire' has gotten me through some tough times, and taught me some great lessons. But last night, a line from Game of Thrones helped me save a dying squirrel. So aside from wanting to share this with you, I was curious how A Song of Ice and Fire has helped you in your life or affected your life in some way. If so, please share.

Where I live in NJ, we had a very severe thunderstorm with high winds. Outside the back door, we found a young squirrel dragging it's tiny, rain-soaked body across the path. It's back legs were limp and it was pulling itself from it's front legs, shaking and wimpering. The squirrel was in terrible distress and seemed to be suffering greatly. He was freezing, soaked, and seemed paralyzed in his back legs, perhaps from a fall out of the nest. I called everyone together to decide what to do with the squirrel. Some thought we should let nature take its course. Some thought we should hit it with a shovel. None entertained the idea of actually trying help the squirrel.

Well, I couldn't let it simply suffer and I wasn't ready to hit it with a shovel. I put on some heavy gloves, grabbed some plastic bags, a thick piece of cardboard and some old rags. I managed to carefully move the squirrel onto the cardboard so it would be insulated from the cold ground. I put a layer of cloth, then plastic around its body to keep it warm, being careful not to put it in such a way that the poor thing wouldn't sufficate. Then I put the little guy under a table outside out of the rain. I remembered that squirrels have fast matabolisms and can die of thirst or exposure pretty quickly. Especially a baby. It was late at night, I had no way of safely feeding it and it couldn't lift its head. Then.. it came to me..

"I will nurse him myself, Father," he promised. "I will soak a towel with warm milk, and give him suck from that."

A line from the very first Bran chapter in Game of Thrones when they find the baby direwolves in the snow. I got a thin towel and grabbed some half-and-half, twisted the end into a point shape, and soaked it the milk. Once the baby squirrel got a taste, it latched on and sucked the milk from the towel readily. I kept dripping more half and half on the towel as he sucked. As he sucked on the towel, he started to warm up under all the rags and wraps. He calmed down, clutched at the towel, closed his eyes and made little happy chirping sounds. He stopped shuddering and soon he was so exausted, he seemed to fall asleep. I carefully covered him with a thin part of a rag and went inside. It was 2am. After a little while, I heard it squeeking, I ran to the window and saw a tom cat skulking around. I chased it away and put a bunch of catfood on the opposite side of the yard by the woods where they hang out. I didn't know if the squirrel would die during the night, but at the very least, he was warm, his belly was full, and he was protected from the elements.

So when I got up this morning, I lifted back the covers expecting to see a dead squirrel. To my surprise, he was feisty and even tried to bite me! I was very pleased. I put the cover back down and he was content to say right where he was, hiding in his box. I soaked the towel again, then crushed up some unsalted peanuts in case he was strong enough to eat them and put them close to where his head had been. I then had to go to work, but I called the wildlife rehab as soon as they opened. When the guy got to the house and lifted back the rags, the squirrel got up and started walking around! Amazingly, he wasn't paralyzed after all! He picked up the squirrel and was petting him. He said that the squirrel had a bump on his head, and he probably did fall out of a tree but they were going to bring him back to the wildlife hospital, nurse him back to health and release him. Because I had kept him warm and dry and gave him calorie-rich half-and-half through the night, he survived. If we had left him out in the rain, he would have had a horrible death.

Now, perhaps all this is common knowledge for those of you who live in the country. We don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, so I was going on instinct. I would never have thought to feed the squirrel using a towel if I hadn't read it in Game of Thrones, and it was the one thing that calmed it down and gave it some calories to stay warm.

So.. while this is an unusual case, has A Song of Ice and Fire affect your life in any way? Has it inspired you to make a certain decision, or did you learn something that you applied to your day-to-day life? Did a particular character's journey or a passage inspire you, or get you through a particular tough time? Share your stories and inspirations here!

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Very nice story :)

I had a presentation recently and I was very anxious. I rehearsed several times, though inevitably I made some mistakes, I forgot what I wanted to say, I wanted to correct my words or clarify them, but I kept carrying on. What was I thinking? "If I look back I'm lost".

The presentation was 12-15 mins. I was extremely satisfied with the result in the end!

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Very nice story :)

I had a presentation recently and I was very anxious. I rehearsed several times, though inevitably I made some mistakes, I forgot what I wanted to say, I wanted to correct my words or clarify them, but I kept carrying on. What was I thinking? "If I look back I'm lost".

The presentation was 12-15 mins. I was extremely satisfied with the result in the end!

:bowdown:
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I wanna hug you for this story ;) I don't have such an amazing anecdote to tell. I'm relatively fresh to the fandom but I guess the books really show you what a good life you have, Recently I catch myself often thinking to not be such a crybaby and to just suck it up whenever I'm in a complain mood. Because at least I wasn't tortured, raped, had to see my loved ones die etc.

Of course watching the news should have the same effect, though somehow it doesn't.

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I'm glad the squirrel lived (see, GRRM? Sometimes good things happen in real life too!)

I wish I had a story like this, but the closest example I can think of was last year, when I was at a Pearl Jam concert. I was in the cheapest seats, very far from the stage. As soon as the concert started I noticed some people were running and jumping over the little fence that separated my area from the v.i.p. sector.

I never do stuff like that, I'm always worried someone's gonna catch me and kick me out, but then I thought "Fuck it, I pay the iron price" and I dashed and jumped over the fence and stayed the full concert in the v.i.p area having paid just one fraction of the ticket, like a Greyjoy would do.

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I'm glad the squirrel lived (see, GRRM? Sometimes good things happen in real life too!)

I wish I had a story like this, but the closest example I can think of was last year, when I was at a Pearl Jam concert. I was in the cheapest seats, very far from the stage. As soon as the concert started I noticed some people were running and jumping over the little fence that separated my area from the v.i.p. sector.

I never do stuff like that, I'm always worried someone's gonna catch me and kick me out, but then I thought "Fuck it, I pay the iron price" and I dashed and jumped over the fence and stayed the full concert in the v.i.p area having paid just one fraction of the ticket, like a Greyjoy would do.

I would have done the same thing. Pearl Jam...you lucky bastard!
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That is very cool. Can't say I would have done the same, but very upstanding and awesome of you. For me, the biggest thing that asoiaf has influenced me on is that not all fantasy is the same. Early on I had read some, and wasn't very impressed. Then over the years I formed a bit of a bias, and am eternally grateful that I stumbled on GRRM, who managed to shatter all of my pre-conceived notions about fantasy.

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