Fortunately for the squirrels, the bunnies were suffering heavy losses on
other fronts (well, on fronts), and were unable to spare more than a few
bunnies to guard the warren. But those were hard times nonetheless, as those
few highly-trained troops staged lightning patrols all through the area,
several times coming within a hare's breadth of capturing squirrels on
supply runs, and once passing not ten feet from the warren entrance. But the
squirrels laid low, and eventually the bunnies ceased the random patrols and
instead kept a tight watch on the bunny warren.

But their troubles were only beginning. First, the humans who had, up until
now, kept their birdfeeders full, had suddenly noticed that it wasn't birds
who were getting the seeds, and had taken them down, all three within the
space of a week. The squirrels were devastated at having to scavenge for
a new source of food, not to mention out of practice. But they managed to
get by, on scraps and, when necessary, outright theft. Humans, upon seeing
talking squirrels, have a tendency to scream, drop their groceries, and run
away, then convince themselves later that they'd imagined the whole thing.
But it was much safer to gnaw a hole through the wall of a convenience store
and drag out a few ding-dongs.

Next, a carelessly thrown baseball smashed the solar array, plunging the
warren into darkness. While normal bunnies may not mind pitch-black holes
as homes, converted squirrels do, and the experience was quite traumatic.
Fortunately, the array was made up of a bunch of little parts (which was
why it was called an 'array'), and Chit managed to remove the damaged ones
and wire together the rest to give enough power for lights. They had to
steal batteries for the computers, though, which was riskier than just
stealing food, since it was something no normal squirrel would ever do.
So, since that situation was untenable, Kara mail-ordered a generator,
COD to a vacant house nearby, then the whole warren ambushed the mailman
and dragged the loot (the generator, a battery charger, and enough fuel
to last for several months of intermittent usage) back to the warren.

Then, at last, the winter was over, and the weather started to warm back up.
And the squirrels discovered that locating the warren over a steam line had
been, perhaps, slightly shortsighted. So, as the tunnels and burrows became 
uninhabitable, they dug new ones in a cooler spot and moved, leaving the old
new warren until next winter.

Then, just as the finishing touches were put on the warren entrance
camoflage, a message came in from UCirc, tightbeamed to all locations
that had accessed the UCirc sattelite, ordering them to report in to 
face charges of treason for assisting Teral in his rebellion. A similar
message came in from Teral at ToledoWarren, belatedly announcing his
independence from UCirc, and ordering some of them (listed by name and
location, 'Zaphod's group in Missouri' being near the end of the list)
to come to TW instead, to help reinforce the warren against a probable
bunny attack.

Chit looked at the messages, shrugged, and hit 'delete'. It was long past
time to rest.

Then Kara walked in, and he told her a story.

And the rest is yet to come.

==
Chit