By Robin Lewis-Light
I look up at the sky and see that the sky is dark. Though I will be warm at home I do not know what I have left to eat tonight, so I head out.
This evening is particularly cold but the lights are on all over the street.
I can see the lights in the house opposite, and I think I may go and see how friendly my neighbours are feeling.
The lights are on, and they are cooking. Good. I might be able to have something to eat tonight.
I can smell it now I am closer, and it smells very nice indeed. I don’t want much, just whatever is going spare. Whatever my neighbours are cooking, it smells delicious.
Every night the lights have got brighter as well. This often happens when it gets to this time of year. People are generous, they often overdo things when these days come around.
The doors are opened, and I see that there is a tall person standing there, and she is smiling. I look closer and see another, smaller figure beside her.
“Is he hungry?” says the smaller face.
“I think he is. Nobody should be hungry at this time,” she says. “Perhaps we should get some food for him?”
The smaller face nods, and heads away, before coming back with what smells delicious but is probably not for me.
The taller face chuckles.
“No, sadly not. He will want what he always wants. You know what that is, don’t you?”
The smaller figure nods.
“Of course, Mummy,” she says, before disappearing again.
I see inside their house a large tree, strangely illuminated in their front room. I wonder why it is there, but I know such things are often done around this time of year.
The smaller face looks at me, and then steps out.
“Just leave them out, and then let him have his fill,” says the larger figure.
The girl leaves the nuts out before stepping away, and I realise there is going to be plenty for me for the next few months. My neighbours are always generous.
“All yours,” says the taller figure to me. “And happy Christmas, little squirrel.”
I know that it is cold for me, but the generosity of this time of year can be a life-saver. I take as many of the nuts as I can hold and head back to my warm drey.
Squirrels do not hibernate. They have to face the winter awake. Many of them don’t survive sudden freezes. They do remember where they bury most of their nuts, recovering roughly 80% to 95% of their hidden food, but a handful of nuts could be the difference for them. Squirrels are generally solitary animals.
Robin Lewis-Light lives in York and tries to be kind to squirrels – and everybody else too – at Christmas.
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