Jerry was a Squirrel. Jerry was also an inventor. Quite a good one, as a matter of fact. He could design and build just about anything. The problem was, Jerry's inventions rarely worked the way he wanted them to work.

Winter was coming on, and it was getting cold outside.

The days were also getting shorter. The sun was coming up a little later in the morning, and it was going down a little earlier. The air was chilly. There was still no snow, but the leaves had all fallen down, and the trees were bare.

Jerry stepped out his front door. Most Squirrels did not like the cold, but Jerry liked cold even less than the other Squirrels. He had always been a smaller Squirrel. He was naturally skinny. The problem with being a skinny Squirrel was the extra weight other Squirrels had helped to keep them warm. He had no extra weight—no matter how much he ate.

Jerry did not like the cold at all!

It was still warm enough to get around, and Jerry had a few more things to take care of as he prepared his home for winter. He had to check his roof one more time to make sure it could handle the weight of the snow and the winter winds. He had to make sure that the shutters on all his windows were closed up tight. He had to make sure his house was well insulated to keep out the wind and cold and everything he didn't like about winter.

Jerry stepped outside his house and shivered. He figured he'd better get moving quickly on his work so he could get back inside where it was warm. He started to work on his roof first. He climbed up on top and checked things over. Everything looked just fine.

He was about to move down to the windows when he stopped and scanned the rest of the village. Most of the Squirrels were outside doing just what Jerry was doing, checking over their houses. Everyone was a little worried. They could tell a storm was coming. The temperature was dropping fast. They all feared the first snow would arrive soon.

He climbed down and checked his windows. His house was two stories with an apartment up top. It was still empty, but he was thinking of renting it out to another Squirrel sometime. No one was in there right now, but he knew he had to make sure it was just as sealed up as the rest of his house. He checked each of the windows and the shutters over them were all just fine. It wasn't long before he was heading back into his house to warm up.

After he had closed the door, he walked around the inside of the house to check all the insulation. Arestanian Squirrels insulated their houses with dried leaves. Jerry had packed extra leaves in this year since he had been so cold last year. He hoped it would be enough. After seeing that the house was well insulated, he went and huddled in a corner. It wouldn't be long before the storm hit.

He was right. It wasn't long. He could hear the howling of the wind pick up and feel his house shake a little bit. The door creaked, and he could hear leaves and sticks blowing around outside. This was a bigger storm than he had thought it would be.

The temperature was still dropping. He fluffed up his fur a little bit to help keep himself warm.

Walking over to his bed, he climbed in and wrapped himself up with the blankets. Jerry laid there for what seemed like hours, listening to the shutters creak and shift with the power of the wind.

Jerry was cold. He didn't like being cold. There was, however, one thing that was good about being cold. When Jerry was uncomfortable, his inventing mind started to work.

He knew that he didn't like the cold, but he liked the heat. If he liked the heat, he wondered if he could he make something that could heat his home.

An idea struck him, and he jumped out of bed. He was still wearing the blankets. They didn't add as much warmth as his fur did, but they helped a bit.

He started to work. As he worked, he became more and more excited, and in no time at all, the wind and the cold had faded from his mind. It was still windy and even colder than before, but he didn't care. He was inventing! He worked all day long and late into the night.

The next morning, his design was finished. He hadn't built it yet, but he had his idea all worked out. He had not slept one wink, but he knew it was worth it. In no time at all, his house would be warm.

Jerry got to work on building his invention. He always started with a design. He had it now, and the giant heater would soon be ready. He pulled out all sorts of supplies from his closets and various storage spaces around the house. He worked hard and by noon he had his invention completely built!

He opened his door and was shocked to see the snow was blocking the entrance to his house! It was like a wall of snow, going way up past the top of his door! He wasn't sure how he could get out, but he was determined. He grabbed the heater, tucked it under his arm and charged. He hit the snow and found it was really hard. He smacked into it and bounced back onto the floor. He hadn't even made a dent.

He closed up the door and crawled upstairs through a small vent. He wasn't the biggest Squirrel around and sometimes that helped him get through tight spaces.

Once Jerry was on the second floor, he opened up one of the windows and climbed out. He jumped down onto the heavy snow, and it took his weight just fine. The snow was so hard. It must have fallen a little wet and then when the cold winds came, he figured it had probably frozen solid.

He dragged the equipment out onto the hard snow. No one watched him. They were all inside their homes, trying to stay warm.

Jerry walked till he was outside the village and a little ways from his house. He knew the heater would make a little bit of noise and didn't want to disturb his neighbors. They still hadn't forgiven him for the bear attack last summer. He didn't think he could get away with too many more mistakes.

He found his spot and started to dig. At first, it was hard going, but as he made his way through the hard layer on top, it started to get a little easier. After a while, he found the ground. There was a layer of dirty leaves, some sticks and then nothing but dirt. He cleared an area at the bottom of the snow and set his machine in place.

He had brought along a hose. It was large and solid enough that it could handle some heat. Jerry hooked the hose up to the machine and set it down. Now it was time for phase two of his plan.

He crawled back up to the top of the snow and looked back toward his house. He needed to gauge exactly where his house was from this point.

When he thought he had it all figured out clearly in his mind, he crawled back down, grabbed the hose and started up his heater. It roared to life! He hoped it wasn't too loud for everyone. Jerry could already feel warm air coming out of the end of the hose. It was heating up. Since he had dug all the way down to the ground, he was surrounded on all sides by a wall of snow. Jerry turned the hose toward the wall in the direction of his house and used the heat to melt a hole, creating a snow tunnel.

It was slow progress, but at least he was warm with the heat the machine was creating. In time, he came to a wooden wall and, sure enough, it was his own home! He had made it through the snow. He looked back and was proud to see a tunnel of ice behind him. Where the snow had melted, it had refrozen as ice. He was happy about this. If he had to make repairs, he could travel back through the tunnel.

Jerry turned his attention back to the house and started to melt more snow. Eventually, he found what he was looking for... a window.

Prying open the shutters and opening the window, he climbed inside and grabbed a small saw. He set to work cutting a small hole in the side of his house, just big enough for the hose to fit in.

Jerry climbed back outside, hooked the hose up to the hole he had just cut and climbed back through the window into the house. He closed up the shutters and stepped back. He could already feel his house warming up. This was going to be a good winter.

The next morning, Jerry woke up feeling warm and cozy. Winter was not going to be so bad if he had his house heated. He was feeling quite happy about this. At least he was happy about the warm and cozy feeling. What he was not happy about was the loud banging sound.

He hopped out of bed, and his feet landed on a warm floor. He smiled at the warm feel of the ground but frowned again as the banging continued. He walked through his warm bedroom and into his warm kitchen. The banging continued. It was coming from outside.

He stared at the door. He could hear someone was out there, banging on the door. Normally, he would just open the door, but he really didn't want to. It was warm in his house, and he thought he would rather not let any cold air in.

"What do you want?" Jerry hollered out to the Squirrel banging on his door.

"We want to know what that noise is! You didn't invent something again, did you? Open the door!"

Jerry was sure that was Mary on the other side of the door. Mary was always a little grumpy in the winter.

"I did invent something. I invented a heater, so I don't have to be so cold," Jerry hollered back.

"What?" Mary called back.

"I invented a house heater," Jerry yelled.

"You sent us a mouse eater?" Mary yelled back. "Why would we need one of those?"

This wasn't working. Jerry had to open the door. Against his better judgment, he grabbed the door handle and turned. He was shocked to see Mary was not alone. About fifteen Squirrels were standing outside his door, and they all quickly poured into his house. He closed the door behind them. He wanted to keep the heat in, but he also wanted to keep more Squirrels from coming in.

"We want to know," Mary began, "what that noise is that we... wait... why is it so warm and cozy in here?"

Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the heat. They started searching around the house till one of them hollered out, "Found it!"

They huddled around the source of heat, and all tried to soak up as much warmth as possible. Jerry was feeling irritated. He worried that they would like the heat so much, they wouldn't leave. He liked other Squirrels; he just preferred them to be somewhere else.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," Jerry said when he felt they had used enough of his warm air. "I invented a heater for my home for this winter. Maybe next year I can invent one for each of your homes. Soooo... umm... I guess this is good-bye. Thanks for stopping by, everyone."

Jerry hoped they would take the hint. No one moved.

Mary spoke up again. "Jerry. I don't like the cold. Could you hook me up to this heater too?"

Jerry looked at Mary and the other Squirrels. He didn't want to go outside, but he felt bad. No one wanted to be cold all winter. Maybe he could help them out.

"Umm.... I guess I could..." Jerry replied.

Everyone cheered and hugged him. Jerry didn't like the cold. He also didn't like physical contact. He waited till the hugging was done and pushed everyone out of his house, promising them that he would get on heating their houses as soon as possible.

Ten minutes later, he was making his way through the ice tunnel away from his house and toward the heater. He grumbled the whole way. He didn't mind helping everyone out. He actually kind of liked to share his inventions, but he just didn't want to be out in the cold. At least in the tunnel, there was no wind, but he would soon have to go up top.

He arrived at the heater and began his climb. It wasn't hard to climb things, even ice. He was a Squirrel, after all. He climbed out of the hole onto the top of the snow and scampered up a tree. He had brought a little pencil and some paper. He had to map out the town so he could make ice tunnels to everyone's house in the village. Not everyone had asked for the heater, but they would all want it once the small group from earlier told them about their warm houses.

He drew out a map of the homes so he could find the houses under the snow. As he did, he noticed something strange in the distance. It wasn't every day they saw humans up in these woods. Most people avoided Squirrel territory.

He strained to see the three humans walking through the village and realized he recognized each of them. One was Liam. He was the King of Liam-ville. His friend, Ezra was walking beside him and on the other side was a young lady. Her name was DOHNK. They were smiling as they spoke with each other and looked like good friends. He liked it when people smiled. He had felt bad about taking part in the attack on Kings-Home last summer and fighting against these three. He hoped they didn't hold it against him.

He watched them as they walked on, out of sight. They looked like they were pretending not to notice him. That was fine with Jerry.

When Jerry was finished drawing out his map of the village, he scampered back down to the heater and set to work. He attached another hose and started to melt new tunnels in all directions. It seemed to take forever, but he slowly made an ice tunnel network under the snow through to all the houses. He started with Larry's house and then moved on to the others who had visited him that morning. He was right in thinking the others in the village would want the heat. By the time he finished with those who had visited him, all the others, including Hat Squirrel, all demanded to be hooked up to the central heating.

After he had hooked everyone up to the heater, he made his way back home. He was tired, cold and wet from all the melted snow and ice. He wasn't happy. He just wanted to sit in his home and be warm.

He found his house again through the network of ice tunnels and climbed back through the window. He shook off the snow and sat in a chair to warm up. The only problem was, he did not warm up. He went to the heater hose and felt it. There was a little bit of warm air coming through, but not enough to heat a house.

"Of course!" Jerry said, feeling frustrated and disappointed. "The heater wasn't designed for so many houses! I'm going to have to do something to make it produce more heat."

His thoughts were interrupted by a furious banging on the door. He opened it up only to find Mary and the entire village of Erry-Ville pushing their way into his house. He didn't think everyone could fit in, but somehow they managed. Jerry was pinned up against the wall with Mary right next to him. They were eyeball to eyeball. Literally.

Mary was pressed so close to Jerry, the whites of their eyes were actually touching. Jerry did not like this. He found it gross and quite disturbing.

"My house isn't getting warm, Jerry!" Mary said, far too loud considering how close they were to each other. Everyone else chimed in after Mary, telling Jerry they were very upset that the heating they had paid for was not working properly.

Jerry began to explain that they had not, in fact, paid anything for the heating when Hat Squirrel spoke up. "Listen, everyone! Hat Squirrel is speaking which means the rest of you should not be! Jerry! Fix the heat! Do whatever you have to in order to make our houses warm! Make them warm by midnight tonight, or I'm going to banish you from Erry-Ville, forever!"

The door opened, and all the Squirrels filed out of his house. Jerry's shoulder's sunk, and he lowered his head. He had to figure this one out. He returned to his desk and began to think. It didn't take long before he came up with a design for a turbocharger.

He set to work immediately, and within an hour, he had it figured out. It took another half-hour to build it, and another half hour after that, he was out at the heater hooking it up. It was only about nine o'clock at night, so he had plenty of time before he would be banished. He didn't like the sound of being banished.

It only took a few minutes to get it all set up. He had built the turbocharger in such a way that it would only kick in if it were needed. It would wait till more heat was needed, then it would kick in and send more heat to the houses. He wasn't sure how much heat it would produce, but he thought it couldn't be too much heat.

He rushed back to his house, anxious to start feeling warm again. It was pretty dark outside and the night was much colder than the day had been. He climbed inside and wandered over to the hose.

Not much heat was coming out. That was okay. The turbocharger would kick in shortly. He waited another moment and began to worry that his turbo-charger wouldn't work, but then he heard it. It kicked in with a roar. Any moment now, the heat would come pouring in and his house would be cozy again.

He was right. It didn't take long for heat to come. Unfortunately, the heat that came was in the form of fire. He didn't realize his turbo-charger was that powerful. Flames shot out of the hose in the wall, and he yelled out!

Jerry sprang into action and dove out the window. He rolled on the icy ground once or twice and then got to his feet, racing to the heater. He arrived in no time and hit the off switch. It died down. He was pretty sure he had gotten it fast enough that none of the houses would have caught on fire.

He was cold again. Very cold. Very unhappy and very cold. He looked down, wondering why he was so cold and realized he had a big problem. The fire had burnt every bit of hair off his body. He squeaked in embarrassment and ran as fast as he could back to his house. He climbed back in the window and looked around for something to cover himself with. The only thing that came to mind was to use the leaves he had in his walls for insulation.

He pulled them out in handfuls and grabbed a needle and thread. Sewing them together, he made himself a quick pair of pants. He finished just in time, as there was a loud, angry banging sound on the door.

He opened the door, a little worried about what he might see. His worst fears had come true. Every Squirrel in the village stood before him. Each one wearing an outfit sewed out of insulation leaves. Not one of them looked happy with Jerry.

Jerry knew this was going to be a long, cold winter.

I hope you enjoyed this fifth part of this series of stories on Jerry the Squirrel. Keep your eye out for more (there are 10 in this series, plus a chapter from another book).

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