The Adventures Of Titter The Squirreal

    Late at night deep in the forest all is normally quiet. Nothing can be heard, except for the peaceful rippling of the brook, along with the never ending song of the crickets or perhaps the occasional hoot from an owl.
    On this particular night the moon was bursting with fullness. The stars filled the sky, shining bright as diamonds that had been cast onto a coal black blanket of fine velvet, stretching out as far as any eye could see. The air was thick with the smell of early spring. But still small patches of snow lingered lightly on the ground could be seen glowing under the light of the moon.
    It only took a moment for the calm silence of the night to be broken by a disturbance coming from the hollow of a large maple tree. Where Mr. and Mrs. Chester Chestnut, the grey squirrels, had made their cozy little nest. The door of the hollow swung open, and out ran Mr. Chestnut, leaping from tree to tree, calling to everyone at the top of his lungs, "Wake up, everyone, he's here! He’s here!”    
    Fanny, the blue jay, was obviously quite annoyed as she glared at him from her nest in the big elm tree. Once she gained her bearings, she ruffled her feathers and began to scold the poor little grey squirrel.  "Chester, you flea brain, what are you doing?  You woke up all of my baby birds and now they think it's time to eat again!"
    "Gee, Fanny, I'm sorry, but you must come and see him!" Chester declared in between gulps of breath. With that, Chester returned to the forest path and had almost rounded the bend when Fanny’s frustration gave way to curiosity and she could stand it no longer. Turning away from all the little upturned mouths in her nest, she hopped onto a nearby branch and called to him, “Wait! See who?!” 
    Chester stopped instantly and rose up on his rear paws and puffed out his chest. "My son, of course! That's who, my new son!" Chester replied hardly believing it himself. “I have to go,” he said, more to himself than to Fanny for he was off to tell his best friend, Wiggles the rabbit, his good news.
    By the time he arrived at his friend's home, his excitement was so great that he almost burst right through the door. However, he remembered how angry Fanny had been, and decided instead to tap lightly on the roof of the burrow, trying not to wake the children inside.
It seemed like forever to Chester, but finally Wiggles sleepily poked his head out of the burrow to see who was there. Unable to hold back his excitement any longer, Chester blurted out, "It's happened!" Wiggles yawned and wiped the sleep from his eyes. "What's happened?"     
"I have a son!" exclaimed Chester. “Can you believe it?  A son!”
    "Well, how about that, Chester. A son. Now, that's something to celebrate!" Wiggles exclaimed, twitching his whiskers happily. "We must go see him!" he added.
    "Go see who?" asked Mrs. Rabbit blinking her eyes as she patiently nudged each of the tiny sets of ears that popped out of the burrow back into the hole. After the fifth one, she drew a sharp breath and sat on the opening.
    "Chester's new son”, he answered thumping his paw on the ground happily, “and we're going to see him right now!”
    "Right now?” she asked as she drew a little closer to the two so she could speak a little more quietly. “Uh, are you sure now is a good time?  I know you and Molly have been waiting a long time for this, but um…well, are you sure she should have visitors just yet?  She might still be a little busy, if you know what I mean.” As she spoke, she realized she had left the burrow door unguarded and little balls of fluff were bouncing around everywhere, so she busied herself shooing them back inside.
    “Oh, you mean…..maybe…. there might be more?  Oh my, I hadn’t thought of that! My goodness, I’ve got to get back right now…..”  In a panic, Chester began running in circles trying to find the path and ended up smacking his head right into a rock and falling backward onto a small tuft of green grass just peeking up out of the snow. “More, there might be more….” he babbled along with some other noises that didn't make sense to his good friend Wiggles.
    Wiggles looked down on his friend, then back to his wife to see if she knew what to do.  Stuffing the last little bunny back into the burrow, she nodded her head at him, “Looks like you need to help your friend find his way home. I’ll stop by to check on her later, okay?” she said with a wink and a soft smile, then disappeared into the burrow herself.
    It was nearly dawn when Chester and Wiggles reached the maple tree. Chester raced up the tree shouting for his good friend Wiggles to follow, then swung open the door to their tiny little home.  “Molly, are you alright? Are there any more?” he fired off along with a whole string of questions.
Molly was lying quietly on a soft bed of pine straw, with a small bundle of fur cuddled next to her. "Sh-h-h-h! We are fine. The baby just went to sleep." 
Before Molly could finish what she was saying, Chester was already poking his head out of the door yelling down to Wiggles. “Hey, I thought you wanted to see my son! Hurry up!” he started back in the door, then made a quick turn around and yelled in a hushed tone, “But you have to be quiet, he just went to sleep.”  He stood in his little doorway for a moment waiting for his friend to come along. 
Wiggles, on the other hand, sat on his big back legs with his arms crossed, leaned back just enough for his eyes to meet Chester’s.  Chester, now growing impatient, stared at Wiggles with raised eyebrows and questioning eyes, “It’s okay, there’s only one…”  Wiggles still said nothing, however his nose began to twitch uncontrollably and his left ear raised and lowered again and again.  Chester let out a huff and marched half way out on the limb and leaned down towards his friend. “What…is…your…problem?”   Wiggles blinked hard then squinted his eyes.  He knew his friend was excited, but this was almost unbearable.  Wiggles took in an extra long breath to calm himself, but was still having a very hard time containing his irritation.  Finally, he said slowly, “I…am…a…rabbit not a bird!” Chester tilted his head for a moment, then with great embarrassment he gasped, “Oh, yeah.”
They both stood there looking at each other trying to figure out just what to do when out of the little door the furry little baby poked it’s head out, and with a giant leap landed right on Chester's head!  He ran up and down Chester's back, all the while making a very strange noise for a squirrel, but still it was a soft pleasing sound.
    "T-i-t-t-t-er--t-i-t-t-t-e-r," he cooed as he sat on his father's shoulder, with one eye twinkling happily from beneath a half opened lid.
    "Oh, Chester, he's adorable!” exclaimed Wiggles.  "What are you going to name him? Do baby squirrels always sound like that?" asked Wiggles as he twitched his whiskers happily.
    "I don't know, Molly is that normal?” replied Chester.
“I don’t think so, but it's kind of a happy sound….kind of a ‘titter’. Oh Chester, I think that's what we should name him….Titter!”
Chester looked at his son who was nearly asleep again in the crook of his arms and shook his head in agreement.  “Wiggles, I would like you to be the first to meet our new son, Titter Chestnut.”

    Chapter 2

LESSONS LEARNED


    As time went on and summer drew near, Titter grew curious of the outside world. Every day his father would come home with yummy new treats to eat and new games he had thought up to play with Titter when he got home.  Best of all, Titter loved his father’s new stories of danger and adventure in the outside world. After a snack and a game or two, Titter would always sit quietly listening to his father's exciting tales of adventure.
    "Now, Titter, soon it will be time for you to leave the tree, and find a home of your own, but first you must be aware of your enemies." began his father. "First there's the cat,” Chester paused long, then suddenly leaped at Titter with wide eyes, teeth showing and paws over his head, “who has big teeth and very sharp claws. A cat will chase you all the way to the door of your hollow!” Titter squealed with delight as his father chased him around the nest.
His father grabbed him and sat down and put Titter on his knee. A bit breathless, but very serious now, he continued, “Squirrels must be alert and must be able to run very fast whenever they see a cat of any kind!  But the most feared enemy of all is the human! Be very careful! And don't be fooled by their kindness or their food. They use that to catch you and put you in a cage so they can take you far away from the forest, or maybe to even eat you! No one knows what those humans will do!" Titter noticed a frightened look on his father's face as he spoke of the humans, and he couldn't help but wonder what these frightening creatures looked like.  He begged his father to tell him more, but his mother told him that he would have to hear about humans another day, it was time to get ready for bed.
Titter learned his lessons, one for each day, for what seemed like a very long time. One morning his mother came and woke him early.  She hugged him and fluffed his fur.  She even gave him an extra walnut at breakfast to save for later. After breakfast, Chester said, “Titter, your lesson for today is gathering food. For this lesson you must come with me outside."
    Titter couldn't believe he was finally going outside! "Mom, did you hear that?  I'm going outside!" exclaimed Titter as he scampered around the hollow.
    "Yes, son", said Molly with a tear in her eye, “you're going outside." She knew this meant Titter was no longer her little baby, and would soon be ready to be on his own.
    "Come on Titter, it's time to go now. We have a lot of work to do," said Chester.
    His mother kissed him and licked her paw then slicked back the fluffed fur on the top of his head.  This seemed odd to Titter.  She had never done that before. "Now Titter, you be careful, and remember all your lessons, and remember to do your best, and… "
    "I will Mother, I promise." Titter replied as he followed his father out the door and onto a limb.
    Once on the limb Titter sat very still while his father sniffed the air for any nearby danger. He sniffed too, but he didn't know what danger smelled like.  All of the sudden a strange looking creature with bright colored wings of yellow, orange, and black, landed right on the end of Titter's nose. "T-i-t-i-t-t-e-r!” he screeched as he lost his balance falling into a bed of leaves on the branch below. The sound was so loud and piercing it could be heard for miles and all the animals around came running to see what the commotion was.
    Everyone was chattering loudly so no one could be understood. From out of nowhere a large, pure white, snow owl came out of the sky, and perched himself high on a branch then hooted loudly until everyone was quiet.
    "Now," he grumbled, "what's the problem here. Who made that awful noise?" he demanded.
    "If you please, Your Honor," Chester began, “my son was frightened by a little butterfly; he meant no harm."
    "A butterfly!" grumbled the snow owl as all the other animals began to laugh. "Why would a squirrel be afraid of a butterfly? Besides, that noise was the most horrible sound I have ever heard, it almost shook me right out of my tree." The snow owl said sternly.
    "I'm sorry if I disturbed anyone. I have never seen a butterfly before, and when it landed on my nose it frightened me," Titter shyly spoke up.
    Chester and Molly were just as surprised as all the other animals. No other squirrel or any other animal in the forest could make such a sound.
    "Well it's not normal, and we can't have him disturbing everyone whenever something comes close to him." grumbled a grouchy old weasel. “He should be made to leave the forest."
    "Yes," agreed Fanny the blue jay. “He must be made to leave the forest.”
    "Calm down everyone," Wiggles the rabbit demanded in a loud voice. “Now, no one has to leave the forest. Chester and Molly have lived in the forest since they were born. I agree, their son Titter makes a very disturbing noise, but that's no reason to make him leave the forest. We should simply ask him not to make the noise again." He suggested.
    "Oh, I promise I will never make that awful sound ever again," said Titter sincerely.
    "Is that agreeable with everyone?" asked Hooter. They all nodded in agreement. "”Then it's all settled. Chester's son can stay in the forest as long as he keeps his promise. Now, we can all go back to our homes in peace." concluded Hooter as he flew back into the sky.
    "Come on Titter," Chester said with a chuckle. "We don't have any more time to play with butterflies."
    "Excuse me Titter," a small voice said.
    Titter looked to see where the voice was coming from, but at first he couldn't see anyone.
    "I'm down here," the small voice said.
    Titter looked down to find the brightly colored creature that had landed on his nose.
    "Hi, who are you?" asked Titter.
    "My name is Funk-a-Dilly. Quite a long name for someone as small as I, don't you agree?"
    Titter nodded his head in agreement as Funk-a-Dilly went on, "That's why my friends call me Dilly. Dilly, the butterfly, that's me!" Dilly slowly drifted upward and sat on a leaf directly in front of Titter, fluttering his wings lightly so not to lose his balance.
    "I want to apologize for frightening you. I sincerely hope you weren't hurt in the fall."
    "Oh, I'm okay, but why did you land on my nose?" Titter asked curiously.
    "I came all the way from the large meadow hoping to find fresh flowers, but I was so tired that I just couldn't fly any longer," Dilly answered.
    "Oh, it's okay," said Titter, “but I must go...I must learn to gather food."
    Chester agreed as he joined the two, "Yes, we must hurry; we have a great deal of work to do."
    "Can I help?" asked Dilly.
    "How can you gather nuts? Some are as big as you are," said Chester with a chuckle.