Self-esteem & Self-reliance
And now he found himself in the middle of a strange group made up of several tiny people and numerous small animals. There was a mole with a pair of glasses perched on the end of its snout. A groundhog was holding a lantern between its jaws. Two mice held a miniature picnic basket between them. All of them stared at him with such an unafraid and curious intensity that Mouse felt a little uneasy.
My name is T.J. Barnes and I don't like cats. I don't like the way they stare. I don't like the way they slink. I don't like the way they race under your feet without warning and wash their behinds in public. Cats give me the creeps.
IQ stands for intelligence quotient—that's something I do know. I've done the pop-up tests on the Internet. The tests show my IQ is—ta-da!—incredibly average.
I sat on a branch near the trunk and let my feet swing freely below me. It felt good to be surrounded by big green leaves. I heard a bee buzz by my ear, lured by the sweet smell of tree sap. It was one of those cloudy Vancouver days where the gray sky seemed close enough to reach up and touch. The clouds were like a blanket that warmed the air without any help from the sun. I felt like I could hide away on this branch forever.