Sharing a story: Chipmunk Rescue #1

Although I could share a host of trials and tribulations, I think I’d rather share something lighthearted instead. I actually have a series of similar events that I documented via emails to friends and family. The first of which is copied to this post. Because of my inexperience with the protocols of internet courtesy, I will substitute names in [X] to protect the innocent (or in future segments, the embarrassed). Enjoy!

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June 28, 2004

[Hubby] and I had an interesting event happen Saturday morning at 6am. For me it started as a bit of a panicky event, but (for both of us) it turned out to be a very special event.

You all know my love for the mice that occasionally get into the house (i.e. dead in the trap is the best way to find them). Well, I heard a noise that sounded like a critter in the bedroom. [Hubby] had just turned the fan on, so it was possible that it was a plastic bag twitching in the breeze. Rather than stressing out about it, I got up to look. No plastic bag on the floor... noise still evident. I moved into the hallway and stopped. The noise was coming from the furnace. I won't tell you the thoughts I had at that moment, but [Hubby] and I set out on an expedition. We got dressed and gloved up with the expectation of a panicked mouse (all fur, teeth and claws) bolting from the furnace when the panel was opened. I even had a bucket ready to catch the thing.

We opened the panel really slow. Nothing. But the sound continued. The critter had somehow gotten into the air intake vent on the roof and fallen all the way down to the burner. It was trying to climb back out and was sliding back down every few seconds. Finding tools, [Hubby] started to open the panel that accessed the burner and the air intake pipe. We saw a nose... then we saw stripes. It wasn't a mouse. It was baby chipmunk! He was SO CUTE. He wasn't two inches long in the body and the tail might have been another inch or so long on its own. We tried to coax him out but he wouldn't come. [Hubby] asked if we had any sunflower seeds. I checked and we did. I dropped a few kernels in the hole and the little guy stopped moving. He was eating. We sat very still with a little dish of seeds next to the hole. He still wouldn't come out. I stirred the seeds and dropped another one in the hole. He ate it. Finally I got a seed in my finger tips (no glove... you try to pick up a sunflower seed with a glove!) and slowly waved it at the edge of the hole. He looked at it and I held it to his nose. He took it ever so gently out of my fingers. It was sooooo cool! I've never fed a critter like that before! We played this game for a little bit longer while [Hubby] figured out how to remove the burner. It came out easily (thank God) and [Hubby] was able to reach in (with gloves) and gently pick up the chipmunk. We tried to put it into the bucket, but it would have none of that. It held onto [Hubby]'s glove like Velcro. We tried to gently push it off and it would crawl up the back of his glove... then the front of the glove... then the back of the glove... When it was finally clinging to the palm of the glove, [Hubby] gently cupped his other hand over the chipmunk and we walked him outside to the driveway. Setting it on the ground it immediately ran under the Vit [i.e. our Suzuki Grand Vitara]. A few seconds later, it dashed under my car. It was obviously in familiar territory again.

A happy ending, indeed! [Imagine the story that it would tell its siblings... and the trouble he would get from his folks!]
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Well, my time is up. Until we meet again...
Godspeed & God bless