Skip to main contentOnce upon a time, in the land of Cascadia, a colony of squirrels lived within a verdant filbert forest. Every four years, for as long as forest-dwellers could remember, they had chosen one squirrel to be their leader.
The current top squirrel was Doc, who had first been chosen almost eight years earlier. Doc was from the southern part of Cascadia and was popular because he had a handsomely bushy tail and was thought to be just about the smartest squirrel in the forest.
So it made sense when other squirrels picked Doc as their leader. Besides, Dennis, the only other squirrel who had wanted the job seven years earlier, was brave, but kind of dim.
For the first few years, Doc's job was easy. The filbert trees were producing record numbers of nuts each year, plenty of extras to give to the squirrels who were too old or sick to gather their own. There was, however, a group of squirrels from Dennis' neighborhood who said that since
there were so many nuts, they should be allowed to cut down some of the filbert trees and use the land for something else. Doc didn't like this idea and wouldn't let them do it. Doc had some ideas of his own--he thought the squirrels should store up extra nuts in case there was a bad crop in the future. He even said that planting some oak trees would be a good idea so that if the filbert trees ever died, they'd have acorns to eat. Doc was so sure he was right that he got sort of mad when the other squirrels didn't all immediately agree. So Doc would pout a bit, and retreat to his tree.
During Doc's first four years as top squirrel, the filberts continued to grow and most squirrels were happy. When it came to pick a leader again, they agreed that Doc should keep the job. (Willy, the only other squirrel who wanted the job, was crafty, but kind of dim.)
After he was picked to serve again, Doc became even more surly. He never had the other squirrels over for dinner, kept to himself most of the time, and traveled out of the forest whenever he could. He seemed to forget that being smart and bushy-tailed wasn't enough, that it was just as important to work with other squirrels, particularly those squirrels who didn't agree with him, like that bunch who wanted to cut down the trees.
Then, in his seventh year in charge, something horrible happened. The filbert trees started getting sick. Suddenly, there weren't enough nuts for needy squirrels.
The tree-cutting squirrels wanted to help, so they hatched a plan. First, they reduced the number of nuts given to the needy squirrels, whom they always suspected of being lazy. Then, they got some old nuts that had been stashed away in the forest for use in bad times.
Well, they thought, these are bad times, and they wanted to take them all. But it still wasn't enough, so the tree-cutting squirrels then decided to borrow some nuts from other animals, promising to repay them the next year.
Doc, who was planning on leaving Cascadia soon, thought this was crazy. What if the next year's crop wasn't any better? he asked. Then, whoever took over his job would really be in trouble.
Doc let the tree cutters use some of the stashed filberts, but he wouldn't let them borrow nuts from the neighbors. He knew that this would hurt, but he decided that if the squirrels got hungry enough, they'd finally listen to his plan about planting oaks and maybe some other trees.
The other squirrels were confused--even those who didn't like the tree-cutting squirrels. Won't some of the needy squirrels suffer? they asked. Wouldn't it have been better to have planted those oak trees years earlier? And what exactly did Doc plan to do?
Doc didn't say anything and went back into his hole. Didn't they know, he grumbled to himself, that he was just about the smartest squirrel in the forest?
WWeek 2015