By Nikki Silverstein
Hero: As she drove on Alexander Avenue in Sausalito, Brisia watched the car in front of her hit a gray squirrel. Most folks would continue on, but not Brisia. The San Rafael resident checked the squirrel and was relieved to discover that he was breathing, though unconscious. Kind soul that she is, she wrapped him in a towel and went straight to WildCare. Unbelievably, the squirrel awakened when she parked the car, escaped from the towel and crawled inside her dashboard. It took almost two hours to take apart the dash and rescue the little guy. WildCare treated the poor lad for head trauma and an injured tail. Two weeks later, the recovered squirrel was released back to the wild, thanks to Brisia’s compassion.
Zero: Maggie seethed while a red liquid slowly seeped from beneath her neighbor’s car into the gutter. Though she felt like a meddling biddy, she pointed out to the young woman, and her friend fixing the car, that the storm sewer a few feet away sported a prominent “drains to the bay” medallion. The man assured Maggie that he would sop up the transmission fluid with sand. Over the next hour, she asked them twice more to stop the flowing waste until they could collect it properly. The polluters shined her on. The final time she went out, it was to inform the oblivious woman that her dog was drinking the poisonous waste. Only then did the couple become concerned about the effect it had on critters.