As a mom to two sons and one stepson, Ladye Hobson is no stranger to the daredevil antics of little boys. But, the Oklahoma mom got the surprise of her life when she received a unique call from the principal of her son, Brylan's school.
"The principal called to tell me he was toting a dead squirrel around in his backpack," Hobson told TODAY Parents. "It just totally topped everything he's done in the past. Then, the principal told me he had kept the squirrel because he wanted to eat it for dinner. I was floored — maybe more like mortified."
Hobson posted about the incident on Facebook, and wrote an essay for Her View From Home giving a detailed account of the day her son picked up a dead squirrel on the way to school, tucking it into his Pottery Barn backpack for safe keeping.
"When asked by the principal what possessed him to pick up a dead squirrel and store it in his backpack, my son replies with, 'I really wanted squirrel dumplings for dinner.'" Hobson wrote in the essay. "She then asks me if I actually want the squirrel to come home with him. Ya’ll, I had to explain that we are from the country, but we are not THAT country!"
"(The principal) asks permission to send me a photo, because, 'It looks so peaceful lying there in his bag.' I hate how right she is, because the poor little guy really is cute. And dead. And crawling with bugs. And in my son’s backpack," Hobson continued in the essay. "Oh, may I also point out that this is the $50 Pottery Barn backpack with his name embroidered that I splurged on just two months ago?"
Hobson says when her son returned home from school, he was apologetic and ashamed of his actions. Worried that he would be in trouble with his parents, the 8-year-old explained to his mother that he had been wanting to try squirrel dumplings, and considered himself lucky to have happened upon a squirrel that was already dead.
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The squirrel was disposed of by Brylan's principal, who made its final resting place the school Dumpster.
Hobson says she and her husband, Denarius Darby, were not angry with Brylan, adding that she wrote about the incident because she felt people could use a laugh in the midst of all of the unfortunate events happening in the world.
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"Picking up dead animals and bringing them to school is not something I would ever say is OK," Hobson said. "I'm pretty strict in my parenting, and had I found the squirrel myself it probably wouldn't have been quite so funny. But, kids will be kids, and sometimes you just have to have a laugh."
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Sept. 27, 2016. It has been resurfaced because we all needed a good laugh.
