A squirrel was sitting in a
tree; he had a way about him of managing to steal things without the owner
noticing until it’s too late. The squirrel had a fundamental way of looking at
the world, if he could steal it, it was his. He sat one day in a particular
tree which was in a particular garden, 4 kittens lived in the house to which
the garden belonged. The owners had gone out for the day leaving the kittens a
sausage each to eat. The squirrel had smelt the sausages being cooked and his
mouth watered; he was going to have those sausages one way or the other. The
humans had left a window in the kitchen open; it faced out on to the tree where
he was sitting. He ran down a branch and leaped into the kitchen. The sausages
were sitting in 4 bowls on the floor, the kittens nowhere to be seen. He slowly
crawled down the countertop and perched next to the first bowl, tentatively he
nibbled at the first one, and it was so good. He could hear the kittens playing
in the other room and ate the second one as fast as he could. After about half
an hour he had eaten 2 and a half sausages, but then he heard the kittens
coming into the kitchen. He scampered up and out of the kitchen window. The kittens
saw the scene of the empty and full bowls and decided to share what remained
and gobbled it up. The squirrel sat in the tree angry; he had eaten too fast
and was beginning to feel sick. “Oh my belly” he groaned to himself, “maybe that
was a bad idea, and went back to his nest.
