Gabriel Birkhimer

Bear

My name is bear. I grew up peacefully in Idaho with my mother and my sister. My father

served in the army and spent most of his time at an Army base. Before my father got deployed

overseas, he left me his red hat. I loved my red hat. We did everything together. We caught fish

together, picked berries together, and even hibernated through the whole winter together. My red

hat is very important to me, and I was very upset when I lost it. I looked everywhere for it. I went

around and asked everybody I knew, and eventually found out that rabbit had it.

Since my story “I Want My Hat Back” was published, I have been falsely accused of

killing my dear friend rabbit. I would never hurt rabbit, we’ve been good friends for a very long

time. After I talked with rabbit about why he had my had, I discovered that squirrel had in fact

taken the hat and given it to rabbit. Rabbit had no idea why the squirrel gave it to him, or that it

was my hat! All rabbit knew was that squirrel said he was feeling generous and wanted to give

rabbit a present. During our discussion, rabbit stated that he was afraid of squirrel. Squirrel was

much sneakier than rabbit was, and rabbit was afraid of what the squirrel might do if he found

out that he gave the hat back. Rabbit was so worried that he asked for my help to get away from

squirrel. I am not afraid of some little squirrel, for I am much bigger than he is. However, I care a

lot about rabbit. So, I helped him go into hiding and thought the best place would be with my

mom in Idaho. He is there now and he is perfectly fine. He can even be seen with me in the book

“Extra Yarn”, which was published one year after “I Want My Hat Back” was published. This

goes to show that rabbit is indeed alive and that I did not kill him. I just wanted to be a good

friend and help rabbit, that’s why I lied to squirrel and said I had not seen rabbit.