Poor little fellow, Mr.Squirrel. Oh poor little fella!!! It was an accident by all accounts, and a dreadful one too!

I regularly go walkies along the canal with Mummy. The air is fresh and clean and I sometimes get to meet other doggy friends if I am lucky. Mummy lets me play with them - my favourite boy is Mojo, a fluffy and friendly Husky. We met that day and I was all jumpy and excited. We had been running in the field by the canal and Mojo had a good roll in Fox pooh (not my idea of a good time, but he looked so cool doing it! Smelt great too). His Human called him and we went our seperate ways. Still full of beans, I leapt along, enjoying the long grass tickling my tummy - when suddenly splash!!!!! A little squirrel leaped in front of me and dived into the water!! He looked fabulous flying through the air, and he began to swim effortlessly through the water to the other side. The bank on the far side had been built up with corrugated metal to stop the bank from collapsing and the poor fella couldn't get out. You could see the panic in his eyes as he swam up and down, up and down. Mummy shouted and I barked 'Swim back!! You can get out over here!!' - but he either could not hear us, or he thought I was going to eat him, and he continued splashing with fright.

By the time we walked round and over the bridge to his side, he was nearly dead. Gentle ripples in the water showed where he was, and as Mummy parted the grass, we could see him hanging on to the edge. He was soaked through to the skin and was gently fitting. Mummy was a hero. She always comes to the rescue when there is trouble. When I fell in the canal she pulled me out and dried my wet fur. Now, in this little boy's hour of need, she pulled him out too.

She wrapped him in her coat - it was freezing, but she gave up her coat to warm the frail little chap in her arms. We remembered that my Irish friend the Lock Keeper was only 10 minutes away. He is a special man - he lets me eat his cheese sandwiches (although Mummy does not approve) and always has time to say hello. We took the Squirrel to the Lock Keeper and he put him in his warm shed and left him to recover.

Last night we returned to the locks to see how the boy was doing. It had taken 2 hours, but he had dried out, fluffed up his fur and the Lock Keeper let him out into the wild . Our poor unfortunate friend could go back to his family and Mummy, the Lock Keeper and I could feel satisfied with our heroic moment.