Page 9 - Whosjobisit

The major predators for squirrels are owls and foxes. It is necessary for someone to always be on guard for these animals. Guard duty is one of the tasks that all squirrels must share ... all that is, except for Howard. He either refused to go out to the “lookout” tree or he would just sit there staring out into space.
On one occasion, Howard's refusal to be helpful almost caused two young squirrels to get caught by an owl. He had been sitting in the lookout tree like he was supposed to but was not looking out. I was watching him and saw that he was just sitting there pouting. When the two mother squirrels went to talk to Howard about what happened, he said, "It's not my fault. You should take better care of your little ones".
I could tell that Howard missed the entire point of the situation. Others were trusting him to do something, in this case, watch for owls. Howard chose not to watch for the owls, either because he was angry about having to do it or because he was bored. He had now lost the Trust of others.In our world and yours, the trust of others is about the most valuable thing you can possess. It can be difficult to get and almost impossible to recover once you lose it.
After the owl incident, I noticed that the other squirrels would have little to do with Howard. They were not really being mean; they just knew that they could not count on him for help. He would only do something if it was fun or would benefit him.
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