A Furry Fable

Why the Squirrel Has a Bushy Tail

by Blanche Day Manos

In the beginning, when the world was bright and new, some of the animals and plants looked different from the way they look now. O’possum, for instance, was beautiful with a pretty coat and a long, lush tail. Of course, even then Possum had beady eyes and an insincere grin which, I’m afraid, were reflections of her inner self.

You might not have recognized Squirrel when the world was new. She had a short, knobby tail, believe it or not. Even with that handicap, Squirrel was cheerful and outgoing. The only thing that caused her a moment of sadness was the way other animals talked about her tail. Most of her friends were too polite (having been raised right) to bring up the subject of her tail, at least while she could hear. Not so with ‘Possum. She must have been up a tree when manners were handed out. Now I’m sorry to say this, but ‘Possum was proud of her beautiful tail. I mean, she boasted, bragged, and made sure everyone noticed how well her tail looked. The really awful part about ‘Possum’s personality was that she made sure Squirrel heard her bragging. Of course, this  caused Squirrel to be even more aware that her tail looked pitiful in comparison.

Before people came along in this bright and shiny world, the plants looked different too. One of those plants that doesn’t look the same as it does today is Yarrow. It was short and stubby, sort of like Squirrel’s tail. In fact, when Squirrel was not within earshot, her friends often called the yarrow plant “Squirrel’s Tail.”  However, beauty is only stem-deep and the Yarrow had something special: it could be used to treat certain illness. It had medicinal properties. It liked the damp earth along the riverbank. When an animal injured a paw or had a stomach ache, it ran straight for the river and the stubby little Yarrow. Sips of Yarrow tea or a poultice from the leaves would fix up the hurt, just like that!

One summer day, when the sun burned hotter than usual from a copper-colored sky, the animals headed to that cool and shady bank of the river. They needed to cool off and that was the most comfortable spot they knew. Sometimes hot weather makes people irritable and the animals were no different.

“If we don’t get rain soon, I’m going to move farther North,” grumped Raccoon, swishing his paws in the stream. “I am hungry but I’m too hot even to fish.”

Rabbit lay on his back under a fern. “The sky was red this morning. You know that old saying, ‘Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.'”

Opossum ambled up. “The sky has been red every morning this week. So far, it hasn’t brought rain,” she said.

Squirrel nosed down a cottonwood tree. “Cheer up, Friends. Tomorrow is bound to be cooler. I heard Owl hooting last night and that is a sign of a change in the weather.”

Opossum glared at Squirrel. “What do you know, Stub-Tail? You don’t have a furry tail to carry around as I do. You probably don’t feel the heat at all.”

(To Be Continued)