est Friends, Dog and Squirrel

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

The Baron’s fiancée, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, was relating a story to the Baron of an event that her maid had witnessed. The maid told Lady Angela that she had watched for some time a dog playing with a squirrel in the local park. They seemed to enjoy each other’s company and when they played a game of tag, the squirrel would always win by scampering up a nearby tree. The dog was as fast as the squirrel so it was an even contest on the ground. “The playing was all in fun and it was great sport to watch them,” the maid reported.

One day, a young mischievous boy brought a slingshot to the park. At first, he was shooting at targets like a branch in a tree, a tin can or a bottle. But as the young man wanted to find a new target, he spotted the squirrel in the tree. He took aim with a small stone and aimed it toward the squirrel. Fortunately he missed by a large measure. But eventually the boy got to be a better shot.

One sad day he hit the little squirrel with a small stone. It hit and hurt the squirrel so that the squirrel had to limp out of the way of the next shot.

By the squirrel’s good fortune, the dog saw what was happening and began to bark at the boy. The boy turned and aimed his slingshot toward the dog. That was a big mistake. The dog chased the boy out of the park and away from his friend, the squirrel. In his rush, the boy dropped his slingshot on the ground and the dog picked it up and brought it over to the squirrel.

The dog and squirrel seemed to decide what they would do with the slingshot. Then they both dug a large hole and buried the slingshot. The maid said that the boy never saw his slingshot again.