It wasn't because he didn't have a warm place to sleep.  His
hidey-hole under the couch was dark and warm,  just the way he liked it.
It wasn't because he didn't have any toys to play with.  His hidey-hole was packed full
of all sorts of treasures that he had carefully collected over the year he lived there. 

He had his squeaky toys, his ball, his shiny
papers, his collection of socks, and lots and lots of other neat things.
But even squeaking his favorite toy mouse didn't cheer him up.
He sighed, his pink nose wiggling ever so slightly.  He wearily put
his head down on his white tipped, front paws, and sighed again.
Perhaps it was because everyone around him was unhappy too.

The little girl who always played with him and held him and gave him
wet tummy kisses, no longer came out of her bedroom to see him.  Beret
would sneak into her room when no one else was looking.  He would climb
up on her bed to see if she would play, but she didn't move.  She just lay
there with her eyes closed and with tubes in her arms going to bottles
hanging beside the bed.  She never even moved when Beret licked her
ears all over.  That used to wake her up screaming and giggling, and then
she would grab him and kiss him and rub his tummy until he flipped and
jumped and twisted and danced.  Now she felt hot when he touched her.

She hadn't awakened in days.
Once he heard "Mom" and "Dad" talking in low voices.  They were very
worried too.  They talked about the doctor and whether they were wrong not
putting her in someplace called a "hospital".  But Dad said that the
doctors told them that they didn't really know what was wrong with her and that
they couldn't do any more for her and that all they could do was wait and hope.

   That was another confusing thing, this "Christmas".  He would listen
to the television and hear people talking about Christmas Trees and Christmas
Presents and someone called "Santa Claus".  Everyone spoke in such excited
and happy voices about Christmas.  "Just what was Christmas?"  Beret
wondered. If he could find this Christmas maybe he'd feel happy again.
Mom and Dad brought a tree into the house and put it in the living
room.  They hung lots of colored lights on it that blinked and twinkled.
They hung lots of colored balls on it that shimmered.  The tree was beautiful.

Beret decided that maybe what he needed to find Christmas was a Christmas
Tree of his own.  He found a branch from the tree that Dad had cut off. Beret
dragged it to his hidey-hole.  Then he climbed into the big
Christmas tree and took some of the colored balls.  He found some funny
looking, sparkly things too and dragged them away.  He even managed to
take off an entire string of blinking lights, and he pulled and tugged them
to his hidey-hole too.  Even though they didn't blink anymore they were still pretty.

There he propped up his tree and hung his new-found treasures on the
little needles.  But it didn't make him feel any happier.  "Maybe Christmas
isn't a tree." The next evening was Christmas Eve.  He went into the living room.
Now there were lots of presents wrapped up in colored paper under the tree.
"That looks just great!" Beret ran back to his hidey-hole and collected up all of his
treasures and put them under his tree.  He still didn't feel happy.
"Maybe Christmas isn't presents.  And if Santa Claus just brings more
presents that can't be Christmas either."

Beret felt worse than ever.  "Christmas isn't a Christmas Tree.  Its
not presents.  Its not Santa Claus."  Would he ever find out what Christmas
was? Later that night, after Mom and Dad were asleep, Beret slipped into
the little girl's room.  The room was dark and gloomy.  There was no
Christmas Tree here.  There were no presents.  Only the little girl quietly
sleeping in her bed.  Beret felt sadder than ever.  Then he had an idea.

He ran back to his hidey-hole.  He grabbed his tree and dragged it to
the little girls room.  He worked and worked and finally got it up on top
of he table by her bed.  He worked and worked and got the lights plugged in,
so they once again twinkled and blinked. Beret ran back to his hidey-hole and
gathered all of his carefully collected treasures and brought them, one at a time
up, to the bedroom and placed them under the little tree. 

The lights never twinkled and blinked so brightly.  They made the once
gloomy room flash with colors - red, now blue, now green, now yellow, then
red again.  The treasures were piled high around the tree.  Beret felt
something deep inside.  Not quite happiness, but it felt good.
He slowly climbed up the bedspread and walked up to the little girl.
He climbed up onto her pillow, then put his nose gently in her ear.  He
started to lick her ear as his way of saying, "I love you."

Suddenly, in the middle of a lick, he thought he heard a soft giggle.
He kept on licking and pretty soon he was sure it was a giggle.  Then a
soft "eeee!"  Then a louder "Beret, you stop that right now!"  The little
girl's hand came up and gently closed around Beret's middle.  She gave him soft,
wet tummy kisses and then rubbed his tummy.  Beret was so happy that he
started to "eeeek" and "ooook" and dance around the bed, jumping so high
and so fast that he fell off and thumped loudly on the floor.

Beret heard footsteps running down the hall.  The door opened and Mom
and Dad rushed into the room.  Dad stopped when he saw the little tree
blinking on the table and Beret's pile of treasures around it.  "What's going on?"
he asked , sounding a little bewildered.
Then they both saw the little girl, now wide awake and smiling.  They
rushed over to her and hugged and kissed her.  Then Mom seem to notice
the tree for the first time.  She looked very puzzled.
"Where did that come from?" she began to ask, but then stopped and
accepted yet another miracle that special night.  She held her daughter
tightly; happy tears running down her cheeks.

Beret silently left the room.  He went to his now dark and very empty
hidey-hole.  Beret never felt happier. "Now I know what Christmas is all about.
It isn't about Christmas Trees or presents or Santa Claus.  Its about sharing and
family and most of all, its about  ..... love."