" Things do Happen "

My name is Avia. I am a young Bunny Rabbit, I have a soft and fluffy gray coat, white cotton tail and long ears that are pink inside.  One day I was walking through the woods, on my way to school, when this big red squirrel said to me. Where are you going so fast? 

I said to school and he responded, why? I said, to learn things. He said, like what, and I replied good things and how to avoid the bad things.  He replied, I know all that stuff and I didn’t have to go to school to learn it. And now I have more time for fun things, like playing in the trees and setting in the sun or shade, whatever I want to. 

I eat all day long and gathered food for the cold winter months, when you can’t find anything to eat under the snow. At night, I curial up in my nest, with a couple of cuties to keep warm.

Besides, he said: when you go to school, you have to learn all the other stuff that you will never use. Why don’t you come and play with me and I will teach you all that you need to know. I said to him, it must be nice to be a Squirrel and play all day long, He said; there is no better way to live than that.

I continued on my way to school, along with all the other kids. The teacher taught us how to spell and how to add and subtract and do other things with numbers, like dividing and working with fractions. I’ll bet that old squirrel can’t do any of that stuff. 

We learned about what life was like in the early years and how people had to go through hard times. Learning new stuff made it easier to do things and do them better. And how to make things last longer and taste better. And by keeping clean, I smelled better and was healthier. And I don’t have to curial up in a cold old nest with another smelly old squirrels, all winter long. When I go to school, I can have fun and play the whole year long. 

One morning, a year or so later, while on my way to school, I stopped to say “hi” to my old friend, the old Squirrel. I was told he no longer lived there, the lady squirrel told me, he had starved to death in that cold old tree nest last year. I asked how old he was and the lady squirrel told me he was real old, he had to be two or three years old. I said:  that was too bad and I was sorry to hear he had died, had he went to school, maybe he would have lived longer and had a better life.

There were many young squirrels running around and having fun and she said they were all his, sons and daughters.  I told her, she should send them all to school and they will learn how to live better and longer, she did, and I visited with them for many years to come. Now they live to be six or seven years old, is that old for a Squirrel?

By: Ben R.

July, 2014