The Nervous Squirrel

There was once a family of squirrels who lived in a large oak tree.

They had lived in this tree for many generations and it gave them all that they needed to survive, acorns to eat and protection from predators, so they never left its branches.

Then the tree started to die and it stopped producing new acorns, so the family of squirrels had a meeting to decide what they should do next.

The oldest son, Nifty, said, “We need to move trees, we won’t survive if we stay here.”

Uncle Nutty responded, “We can’t do that, we’ll be killed for sure.  The hawks, foxes and bears are just waiting for us to leave this tree, we can’t possibly leave.”

After much debate, the entire family decided to stay in the old oak tree except for Nifty, who decided that he needed to take the risk and change.

Nifty left the tree and was never heard from again.

“See?” Uncle Nutty said to the rest of the family, “I told you that the hawks, foxes or bears would get him!”

However, the squirrels were starving, so after another family meeting it was decided that cousin Nibbles would take the risk and leave, despite the dire warnings of Uncle Nutty.

Nibbles left the tree and was never heard from again.

Uncle Nutty continued his rants against leaving the tree despite the fact that they had no food.

One by one the other squirrels left with the words, “The hawks, foxes or bears will get you, just like the others,” ringing in their ears.

Eventually, only Uncle Nutty was left on the old oak tree.  You could see his ribs showing through his skin as it had been a long time since he had last eaten.  He was rocking backwards and forwards on a branch muttering to himself, “Hawks, foxes, bears, hawks, foxes, bears…”

Meanwhile, just 100 metres away in the same forest, the rest of the squirrel family was living comfortably together in a lovely oak tree that was supplying all of their needs.  They had avoided the dreaded predators and were enjoying their new life.

Big brother Nifty felt bad about Uncle Nutty, so he told the rest of the family that he was going back to see if he could convince him to join them.

He returned to the old oak tree and found his uncle in very bad shape.  He told him about the new tree and how they had escaped the hawks, foxes and bears.

But poor old Uncle Nutty just shook his head and said that it wasn’t worth the risk to move.

He was never seen again.