“Uh-ohhhh!” Lincoln says. “Busted!”

“I think Anneli found the mess I made when she loaded firewood in the wheelbarrow yesterday. All the walnut shells behind the wood, bits of sunflower seeds — they were all tucked away behind the first row of stacked wood. I heard her say, ‘Ahhh-HUH! Ratty has been here!’ It was all I could do not to laugh out loud. She had no idea it was me, Lincoln — her favourite squirrel.”

“But now I’m busted. What to do? Run? Naw … she won’t hurt me.”

“So I asked her, ‘How’s your Christmas going so far?’ But she just snorted. Must be too much work right now. Everything happening at once. I heard her grumbling to the Captain about how busy the traffic is.

“Too bad. There’s no traffic here … except those spaniels of hers. I’ve got their number though. Don’t know why Anneli thinks they’re so great. They can’t even climb!

“Although … that Emma can jump pretty high. Think I’ll duck for cover just in case.”

“She’ll never find me up here. See me? To the left of the big chunk of wood on top?”

“I think I’m being zoomed. She does that sometimes with that gadget she points at me all the time. I can hear it going ‘Z-z-z-z-z-z-z … beebeep – click.’ It doesn’t hurt though.”

“Oh, look. Isn’t that sweet? She’s put some walnuts on the firewood for me. And what’s that, she said?”

Merry Christmas, Lincoln!