Girl’s attempt to rescue squirrel from pool hilariously backfires

An American girl’s attempt to save a poor squirrel went hilariously wrong after the rodent leapt at her face.

In the clip, an unnamed girl in red can be seen attempting to free the floundering critter from the water while an off-camera voice warns “don’t touch him.” She almost succeeds at lifting the waterlogged rodent out using a chair, but the squirrel doubles back and leaps onto its rescuer’s body near her face, causing her to shriek with surprise. The clip concludes with the screaming girl fleeing the pool while the videographer laughs hysterically in the background.

“The squirrel was not quite as grateful as she had hoped!” the voice says of the ill-fated rescue bid.

Needless to say, viewers are going nuts over her botched tree-hopper retrieval.

“This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time,” exclaimed one Facebook fan of her epic fail.

“Just put the chair down and it would have been able to climb out,” suggested one YouTube viewer in retrospect.