Man Resuscitates Drowning Squirrel, Video Goes Viral

Every day, thousands of pool cleaners across the country scoop dead bugs, birds and other creatures from people’s pools. Most probably don’t give the critters a passing thought.

But when pool repairman Rick Gruber recently discovered a ground squirrel drowning in a Phoenix, Arizona pool, barely clinging to life, he sprang into action, performing CPR on the rodent until it miraculously came back to life. What’s more, he filmed the resuscitation with a small camera, and the footage of his efforts has since gone viral.

“I would do it for anybody; a rodent, a dog, a cat. Anything,” Gruber told CNN, though he admitted he stopped short of any mouth-to-mouth breathing.

At the end of Gruber’s hour-long video, the rodent is seen running back into the Arizona desert … possibly into the strike-zone of a hungry rattlesnake.