Nutkin

Back home for the Easter holidays, the second time since 1962.

We had temporarily moved to another house while ours was being redecorated. Very posh as it was built of concrete, had glass in the windows and possibly had air conditioning in more than just one room (my parent's bedroom) as in our own home.

Errol the yard boy had presented me with a squirrel he had bred. He was into small animals particularly birds such as budgies which we had also had.

He taught me all I needed to know about looking after it and it was to become my main occupation that holiday. It was amazingly tame and went all over the house and garden with me. I did get one fright when it fell off the first-floor balcony on to the concrete floor below. I was sure it was dead. But no Nutkin was fine.

When I returned a few months later for the summer holidays, Nutkin had turned rather vicious due to the lack of personal attention and even on odd occasions bit me, not a pleasant affair. So the decision was made to set him free.