LIAA KUMAR follows Barnaby the squirrel on his frantic search for a winter home—and the simple discovery that finally helps him feel at rest.
Barnaby the squirrel was having a very bad day. Winter was only a week away, and he still hadn’t found a cozy winter home! By now, all the other forest animals were settling into their warm dens. Barnaby needed to find a new place, stat! But where was a squirrel supposed to find a bed for the winter in this forest? He needed some ideas.
He started scampering through the forest when he came upon a burrow. He stuck his head inside and saw three little bunnies slumbering peacefully. “Oh, that looks nice and warm!” Barnaby thought to himself. “I’ll just dig myself a burrow!” Barnaby found a nice little clearing a few feet away and started digging. He dug and dug and dug, until the soft soil turned into a tangle of tough earth, roots, and rocks. But still, the burrow wasn’t nearly big enough for him yet. And his poor little paws were so tired and sore. Barnaby huffed and puffed as he wiped sweat from his brow. “Whew! This is going to take way too long. Maybe a burrow isn’t the right idea for me,” he thought.
He scampered over to the river to get a drink of water. That’s when he saw a family of beavers preparing their dam for the colder weather. The thick walls looked like they did a good job of keeping the beavers warm, and it was a lovely, big home. Much bigger than the bunny burrow.
“Well, that’s it!” Barnaby thought to himself. “I’ll build myself one of those!”
He started running around, dragging as many branches, twigs, and leaves as he could find back to the riverbank. He started piling everything together, trying his best to make it look just like the dam across the river, but every time he built everything up, the wind would blow and knock it all over again.
Barnaby scurried around, trying it one way and then another. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his home to stand up straight. Finally, he got frustrated.
“Oh, what am I going to do!” he exclaimed as he threw the twigs on the ground. He slumped to the ground, disappointed. “I’m never going to find a place to sleep for the winter at this rate.”
That’s when a beaver slowly made his way across the river. He crawled out onto the riverbank and took a good look at Barnaby’s house, or at least what was left of it.
“You know, son,” the beaver began, “I’ve been watching you for a while now from across the way. You’ve been hard at work on building this uh, ‘structure’ here. May I ask what it’s meant to be?”
Barnaby sighed. “Well, it’s supposed to be my home for the winter. I tried to make it look just like your house, but it’s not going too well.”
“Hm,” the beaver hummed. “Well, if I know anything about anything, it’s that trying to do everything at once often gets you nowhere. And a squirrel like you doesn’t have any use for a big old dam for the winter! Maybe a little more patience might help you discover exactly what it is you really need.”
Barnaby thought about that as he turned and headed back into the forest. Where did Barnaby truly want to be? He was gazing up at all the towering trees around him when it struck him: “Why, I want to be in a tree, of course!” he exclaimed.
That’s when he spotted a great big ancient oak tree with a strong, deep knoll right in the center. Barnaby hurried up the trunk, eager to take a look. “Oh, I hope there’s no one inside already!”
He peered cautiously into the warm, wooden room, and his tail started twitching with joy. “It’s perfect! Now I just need to add some final touches.”
Barnaby wandered through the forest one last time, picking out the best twigs and bits of moss to take back with him to his new home. Working carefully and patiently, he layered it all together, finding the right spot for every piece, until the whole knoll was soft and warm and very cozy.
“I guess it wasn’t so impossible after all!” he exclaimed. “I just needed to take some time to discover what I really needed.”
AI-generated images
Liaa Kumar
