Upstairs / Downstairs

I woke up this morning to an ice storm outside of the burrow. The layer of ice coating everything was so thick I couldn’t get the burrow door open. After washing the dishes, doing the laundry, and tidying things up, I was bored. I flipped the TV on and they were running the New Years Eve episode of “Upstairs/Downstairs” a widely popular critter series similar to your Downton Abbey. The show is set in the medieval period when bird families were royalty and chipmunks and other four pawed critters were peasants and servants. The chipmunk servants live and work in the castle’s dungeon. They cooked the meals, polished the silver and catered to his lordship’s every whim. Colonel Gray was lord of the castle. The colonel was a widower and looking for a wife. He was smitten with the daughter of the Earle of the Golden Nest and was frequently absent from his castle wooing her. She is secretly in love with a young handsome prince but her father wants to cement an alliance with Colonel Gray.

While the romantic drama plays out, the servants take advantage of the Colonel’s absence and pretend to be royalty. The colonel has flown off to the Golden Nest to attend the New Years Eve Gala Ball. The servants figure he will dance the night away and not be back before dawn. So they, turned the great hall at the castle into an impromptu servant’s ball. Unbeknownst to them, the young prince arrives at the Golden Nest and declares his undying love for the Earle’s daughter at the gala ball in front of everyone. Colonel Gray thinks the Earle double crossed him and flies home to declare war.

In the meanwhile, the servants are busy being merry and drinking the colonel’s wine and beer, and stuffing themselves full of the finest imported sunflower seeds. Being medieval times, it was standard practice to post a lookout on the turret. Luckily for the servants, they kept the lookout on duty. Just as the party is in full swing, the alarm is sounded by the lookout. The Colonel is on the way home and looks raving mad.

The Castle was designed by birds and there is no staircase to the turret. The only way to reach is by going through the window and climbing the outside wall.

 

The lookout checks twice, The Colonel is about to arrive! She abandons her post to alert the others.

The Colonel arrives and realizes something is amiss in his own castle, there is no lookout on duty.

Picking of a seed, the colonel thinks: What are my finest French sunflower seeds doing on the turret? I only feed my servants stale moldy peanuts.

One of the servants anxiously hides in the dungeon.

The Colonel follows the trail of seeds to the dungeon.

Not finding any of his servants, it is beginning to dawn on him his servants have forgotten their place in society. Servants partying in my great hall? Unthinkable! He quickly flies back to the turret to look around.

 
Thinking the coast is clear, the servant starts to leave the dungeon.

He has a plan. He is going to stuff cheek pouches full of seeds in the great hall and run away to the woods.

 

Colonel is on the turret and hears noises from below.

Hoping to surprise the miscreant servant, the Colonel swiftly flies down only to find an empty great hall. The servant has slid down the garbage chute to the dungeon.

 The servant jumps up and gives the Colonel’s tail feathers a nip!

Outraged, the Colonel speeds to the dungeon only to find it empty. The servant has crawled up the garbage chute to safety. How long can this continue before the servant is caught?

A messenger from the Golden Nest arrives outside the Castle. Both master and servant forget their troubles as they strain to hear the message. The handsome prince has been exposed as an imposter sent by their common enemy! Seeing an opportunity the Colonel makes haste to the Golden Nest.

The servants realizing they are not the powerless drudges of society, make a New Year's resolution: they are going to leave and setup their community where everyone is equal.