Up the top of a tree, a baby squirrel lay, snuggling against her brothers and sisters. When morning came, the baby squirrel opened her eyes and let out a small squeal.

“Good morning mother.” The baby squirrel said.

“Good morning Kyla.” The mother replied. Mother squirrel gently licked Kyla. “Mommy will go look for some food, you stay here with your brothers and sisters and wait for me, okay?”

“Okay mommy.” Kyla loved when mommy went out to look for food. She always came back with yummy things to eat and chew on.

When mother squirrel left, Kyla watched her mommy scurry around on the ground beneath her.  She woke up her sleeping sister and they chased each other around the drey. A drey is a squirrel’s home, it looks very similar to a bird’s nest. After a very long time, Kyla and her sisters and brothers were growing very impatient. They were very hungry, but mother squirrel has not returned. Kyla started to get worried. She looked down and saw her mother. She was on the ground, gasping for air. Kyla did not know what to do, but she knew her mom needed her help, anyone’s help. Kyla wanted to get down to her mom, but she didn’t know how. She called for her mom, but mother squirrel was still trying to gasp for air. Kyla placed one paw down a lower branch and slowly placed her other paw on it too. Kyla was getting the hang of it, but when she tried to put her front paw on the lower branch, she slipped and fell all the way down. Kyla was on the ground now, she heard her siblings calling after her.

“I’m okay!” Kyla shouted.

She looked over to her mom and quickly ran to her. She saw that something was stuck in mother squirrel’s mouth. It was shiny and white. Kyla knew her mom could not breathe, she was choking on the thing in her mouth, a wrapper.

Someone had littered a small piece of candy wrapper and it was now putting mother squirrel’s life in danger. Just as Kyla was about to leave to call her siblings for help, her mother coughed out the wrapper and was able to breathe again. She was blue all over and needed to rest. She grabbed Kyla by the neck and carried her up to the drey.

Kyla would never forget that day, the day where she almost lost her mom, to something on the ground that she didn’t even know what it was. Kyla was now living on her own, with her own children. Today was the day where she was going to take them out of the drey to show them around. They can finally explore!

Kyla watched as her babies sniffed the ground, eagerly looking for something to eat. Just as Kyla was about to start looking for food as well, she spotted one of her babies heading for a piece of wrapper that just dropped out of someone’s hand. Kyla ran as fast as she could. She did not want her baby to choke on the wrapper, but she was too far away from her baby and she might not reach there in time. She ran and ran when a person about 20 times bigger than her came and picked up the wrapper. The boy took it and threw it in a big can, somewhere her baby will not be able to reach.

 

“Thank you.” Kyla squeaked. He turned around and smiled. That boy may have saved her baby’s life.