Bad Dreams 13 -- Morning of 12/28/18

In my dream, I'm standing outside next to someone.  We watch a third person make a rescue:

There is a small mammal (mouse? maybe bigger, but not a rat!) hanging from the underside of a bridge.  It's a metal bridge and the animal is hanging by its front paws off the horizontal ledge of a steel girder. It's maybe 15 to 20 feet above where we're standing.  We watch as the animal lets go -- and this third person is standing exactly where he should be to catch the animal.  And he does so.  I don't recall what he does with the critter, but it is a kindly thing for sure. 

And then it is my time to do the same.  I walk to the place where I should stand and see the next animal move down to the same metal ledge.  The animal lets go and it slips/bounces off my hands and falls down a circular drain.  I hadn't seen the drain as I was preparing to catch the animal.  If I had, I might have positioned myself more carefully.  The drain isn't deep, but its surface is coated with a chemical (oil, I suppose) that gives off that sheen that an oil slick gives off.  I look down into the drain, but the animal is not in sight.  

I drop to my knees and try to fish it out of the yucky water.  It takes some time, but I get him/her and pull her/him out.  Covered with the contamination fluid.  It's alive, but not by much.  I'm totally unprepared to clean up the animal, and hand it to someone else (I think the second person -- the "someone" mentioned above).  

I feel bad for contributing to the animal's plight, but not as bad as I was afraid I was going to feel.