A story by Kaitlin ... Everyone knows how much I love my children. This is a story that Kaitlin wrote for her 6th grade English class. I wanted to share with you today. From the View of a Squirrel by Kaitlin The residents of Milledgeville slowly got up as sunrise came. Residents, meaning not just the people living in the small town, but also…other creatures. “The big oak tree” that sat in the middle of town was the home of a squirrel. He uncurled himself from the lump of fur he was in while sleeping and went outside. The sun was still rising and the squirrel watched as humans passed him, some getting on this long yellow thing that humans called a school bus, some driving cars, of many different shapes and sizes and some walking briskly in the cool fall morning air. He had no idea as to where they were going but he thought it must have been important because they were always going past his home. After a while he stopped watching them and looked for food as he usually does when it isn't winter. "WOOF WOOF!" Just great…The squirrel thought sarcastically. The dogs that walked with their humans every morning usually left the squirrels and other animals alone, most of the time. Occasionally, and unfortunately for the outdoor inhabitants, there is always the one dog that decides he wants to play around. Luckily for the squirrel, the humans kept them back before a chase would start. Up the tree the squirrel went and the human held on to the dog’s leash before it could run to the tree and try to climb up while barking. "Would you stop already?" The squirrel climbed back down once the human and dog was gone. Humans may look funny and do odd things, but moments like that made the squirrel grateful that they were around. The squirrel continued looking for food. Sometimes during the afternoon a smaller human with what looked like the mother would watch him as they sat on the park benches. He didn’t mind since the smaller human and the mother…. they didn’t bother him. They would actually sometimes try and give him nuts for the winter. He liked that as he didn’t have to go out and hunt for them. He actually enjoyed these humans. "So you want another game huh?" About twice a week, about early evening, he would hear a lot of humans talking loudly. It was coming from outside of the building near the squirrel’s home. This building had a lot of humans around during these certain times. There was a big sign on the gate with funny symbols; squirrels couldn’t read, of course that said "Milledgeville Community Park and Center." The humans would be carrying these round brown things that looked kind of like a really big nut, but was actually a ball. The squirrel watched as these humans ran to this big area, with no trees, and took the ball away from each other and threw it through the hoops that hung off the walls and fences. He didn’t find the game interesting and decided to check the other side of the Park. On the other side of the park, humans were bouncing small brown balls at the smooth surfaced walls and others were climbing the wall that had a surface like a rock. The squirrel found this interesting because humans didn’t seem like the type to know how to climb since they didn’t have claws to dig into the surface. He sat and watched them for a while, but didn’t find this very interesting either. The squirrel was getting tired and so he decided that he would gather his nuts and go back to his home in the big oak tree. As the sun started to sink, the squirrel was ready to bring all the food he found today back to his tree and sleep. A group of young humans walked out of the Milledgeville Community Center and passed him by. They come to the building at slightly different times and leave together twice a week. The squirrel wasn’t sure who they were. He heard once they were involved in a "Web". The young humans were part of the Milledgeville Youth Web Leadership Team. This confused the animal since this group didn’t look like spiders. He thought that only spiders could be in webs. He went on about his business of taking his food home to store up for the winter. When the sun was gone and the little balls of light on thick black branches sticking out of the ground were turned on, the squirrel went back to his tree, ate a few nuts, put the rest away and got ready for sleep. As he curled back into the lump of fur, he thought to himself about tomorrow. Tomorrow the humans would be back, they would be back waiting for the yellow bus to come, they would be back in their cars, and they would be back walking briskly in the cool fall morning air with their dogs. He was looking forward to the small humans who sat on the park bench with their mother in the early afternoon… he was looking forward to tomorrow evening because of the game on the very big field near his home. The humans would be back with their white balls and long brown sticks and their brown gloves that they only put on one hand. He could never figure out why they only sometimes put those brown gloves on one hand. Anyway, minus the fact that balls the size of him would crash near him sometimes, and disturb his home, he did not care. The squirrel liked the game humans called "baseball".