” from a den inside a tree that had fallen across an access road to a work site,”
OK, now we are getting somewhere. In California cutting up a tree that has fallen across an access road to your work site without a permit is a serious crime.
My wife was driving home one day and there was a traffic problem. Someone had run over a squirrel, and it was flopping around in the road and people were stopped gawking at it. My wife grabbed the Nomex hood that was in my helmet in my firefighting gear in the trunk. While people were screaming at her to stay away from it because it was dangerous and probably had rabies she calmly walked over to it, wrapped it in the fabric, picked it up and put it in the passenger seat and drove it home.
When she got home she called the “wilderness vet” and told them that she had an injured squirrel. They said that the only option was to have them put it down. When she replied that she thought that it should have a chance to recover the person she was talking to went off the rails. They started yelling at her and told her that harboring an injured squirrel was “serious crime” and that she needed to bring it to them so that they could put it down. She hung up the phone as they were telling her that she faced fines and jail time.
This started a months long adventure where we rehabilitated the squirrel and eventually let it go. It lived in the tall firs behind our house for years until it was probably eaten by a coyote, owl, or cat. It never was as fast as a squirrel without a medical history and was easy to identify because it was very vocal and it’s tail never recovered.