Chick-Chick

Ahhhh... The wonderful fall days are finally here. For the last few days I have actually been wearing jeans! The crisp air and the beautiful leaves make me feel like I have a new lease on life. The last few days remind me of why people live in this part of the country.


Yesterday morning, while Grandpa and I were packing up deer roast, I found a beetle in the house. Ofcouse I immediatly had to identify the bug. It turns out that it was a weevil--the lesser of the two. Anyhow, when Jerry went to throw the bug outside he yelled that the cat had a chipmunk cornered. The little guy had gotten himself traped behind a ladder while he was trying to escape. After we threw the cat in the house I caught the chipmunk and promptly decided to rehabilitate him.






I found a cardboard box and filled it with the fallen leaves. Then I nestled Chick-Chick (yes, I had named him by this point) in a clean t-shirt and put him in the box outside. I had hoped that he would rest and then jump out of the box and run home. In the mean time I started painting my finger nails--which I subsequently ruined with chipmunk hair. How many people can say that? After about an hour he hadn't moved, so I decided to take a more active approach. The rest of the day I carried him around and petted him, talked to him, and made sure that he was warm and resting. It was a fantastic way to spend the day.


Later in the afternoon Chick-Chick was perking up a little bit, so I used the straw from a juice box to give him a few drops of water. He seemed to be quite happy with this and began to clean himself up. About that time my mom called on the cell phone and scared us both to death. Chick-Chick looked up at me and made a flying leap onto my shoulder. Then he proceded to run all the way down me to my toes where he paused for a split second before jumping onto the quilt on my bed. I grabbed his t-shirt and quickly bundled him up. As I headed to the door I asked Granny to take a few pictures before I let him go. The t-shirt kept him still until I made it outside, then he repeated his earlier performance of jumping onto my shoulder and using me as a jungle gym. The following pictures are action shots.

The day ended really well, because about five minutes after we released Chick-Chick we saw him scampering across the back yard toward his home. Hopefully the little guy learned his lesson and won't be frequenting the grage any more. If I ever catch him again, I'll keep him.