Jackie leaps effortlessly with amazing grace and lightness, like a tiny deer, over all obstacles on the forest floor, intent on following squirrels as they increasingly manifest their presence seeking out edible supplies to be stocked against the miserable cold winter months when food becomes scarce in the forest. He has taken more repeatedly of late to suddenly veering off trail and into the forest, alert to the presence of grey, black and red squirrels all of whom provoke his immediate interest...

He is amazingly swift, but however fleet of foot he is, the squirrels have the advantage and swiftly make their way up tree trunks, from which height they lean down to scorn and to scold him for his impudence in their very personal territory, switching their tails back and forth provocatively as he looks up at them puzzled by their tree-clambering dexterity.

Unlike his sister, his energy and dexterity seem boundless. He has a heightened sense of action, whereas Jillie is far more laid back. He is prodigiously restless and she is moderate in everything she does. He consumes twice the calories she does, though she would like to have the opportunity to challenge him in his champion-size appetite, yet she weighs much more than he does, and lacks his lithe muscularity.

Jillie will respond too when she spots a squirrel, but her forward-motion effort is half-hearted and she never spurts forward very far or for very long before coming to a stop, watching her brother as he races deeper into the forest to attempt to reach the squirrel that had attracted his attention, alert to the chase and outleaping Jackie with the advantage of a considerable head-start.

When he has gone too far and we can no longer see his little form speeding through the underbrush, pirouetting, leaping, we call him to return. His response is fairly instantaneous, aided by the fact that by then the chasee has ascended to a secure, unreachable perch, and the chaser fully realizes the object of his curiosity is no longer within the potential of reach. Back he comes, hurriedly but not at quite the original speed, retracing the intricate pattern of his original chase, to join us on the trail.