It was my unka souffs birfday yesterday and I missed it. Im not very good at catching these birfday fings...sorry unka souff, hope this is okay. unka souff is my only uncle and that's because he is totally an utterly fantastic he makes me feel really special and spoils me and he's really kind... so here is a little story about him

Souffle had agreed to look after Gem on his birthday. He wasn't really doing anything this year and birthdays weren't really that important anyway so to help choco and Nicol out of a bind he had agreed to take care of his neice for the day.

Gem had been told it was her Uncle souffles birthday and that as a result she had to be on her best behaviour. She was only just becoming accoustomed to birthdays having seen her siblings celebrate them and she knew there was icecream and cake to be had with balloons and presents.
When she was dropped off at her uncles house she was surprised to see none of the things she expected of a birthday.
"Unka souff, weres yoor balloons?"
Souffle didnt really understand his little neices train of thought so just ruffled her hair.
"unka souff doesnt have any balloons squeaker. You go play with your toys like a good girl okay"

All through the day Gem tried to find things to get unka souffle for his birthday. As the kids cartoons were on TV, whenever an advert came on, she would shout at her uncle.
"unka UNKA."
"Yes squeaker?"
"Yoo can haf that for yoor birfday"
Souffle would just chuckle as she pointed to the latest preschool block sorter or activity centre, or anything that was currently on the screen.
"Squeaker save all your hard earned money okay, your unka has everything he needs right here"
He would say as he gave his little neice a cuddle resulting in giggles from the tiny squirrel.

Later as Souffle was in the kitchen putting together dinner he thought about the fairly relaxed and uneventful day he had had, sometimes it was nice to just do nothing with your birthday, to just pause life and take a day off, and what a well behaved baby Gem had been today.

Thinking about his neice it suddenly dawned on him that she had been quiet for the longest of times.
Putting down his chopping knife he wiped his paws on a towel and made his way into the study where he had left Gem colouring in one of her colouring books. he froze in his tracks.
Pages littered the study floor, scrunched up, scribbled on pages that did NOT look like gems colouring book. A quick scan of his bookshelf and he let out a rather distressed eeep. Out of ALLL the books, the one true treasure in his cookbook collection, wasn't where it was supposed to be.
His eyes fell on his neice just as she realised she was being watched and she looked up at her uncle. her eyes beaming with pride. She had finally found something she could give to her Unka for his birthday. She toddled over to him, struggling to hold up the weighty tome that she had been scribbling on.
"unka souff I made yoo a birfday card" She held up the tattered cookbook, a shadow of its former self, now covered in random blues and reds.
"This is yoo an this is me" She said as she pointed to two random blobs that could have just as easily been horses or buses or any number of things.
Gems eyes shon, happy that she had finally been able to give her unka something he would treasure, she knew he loved that special book and now she had made it better.

Souffle crouched down, a shakey paw extended to recieve his oh so wonderful gift. He plastered a grin on his face, even though it hurt to do so, even though he wanted to burst into tears, he
realised his neice had only been trying to do something nice.

He was surpised at himself when he managed two very quiet, very strained words
"thankyou Squeaker"