Sunday, August 26, 2012

Wild Animal Safari: Not In MY Car!!

We have a chronic problem with chipmunks, oh so cute, and oh so destructive.  Once again I have started my perennial trapping (as chronicled in my earlier post this summer “The Daily Chipmunk”, June 21).  Well, they haven’t gone away.  I have trapped them, driven them miles away, over the railroad tracks, and released them into wonderful new wooded surroundings.  And I am beginning to suspect that these critters have some kind of inherent GPS and find themselves back in my yard, once again burrowing under the paving stones.  And now the patio is once again collapsing from their spacious living quarters beneath the surface.

This past weekend, we loaded up the daily occupied trap into the back of our truck.  We were on our way to a bike race nearby and thought that the chipmunk deserved citizenship in a new town.  We could hear him scampering about in the trap as we drove.  Suddenly, something caught my eye.  Thinking that it was only my imagination, I didn’t say much about it.  And then, a quick movement by my feet happened again.  It was the CHIPMUNK running around on the floor of the truck.  My husband was driving.  He looked back.  Sure enough, the chipmunk had ESCAPED and was running around like he had just ingested a five-hour energy drink.  I would rather face a mountain lion than some little critter with the ability to crawl up my leg.  I pulled my feet up.   AGGGHHH!

He pulled the vehicle onto a side street.  We both jumped out, opened all the doors and the hatch in back.  And waited.  We could hear him running around, but we had no means of shooing him out.  Finally, he jumped and ran for cover.  I think at that point I could have won the bike race myself.  My adrenaline was pumping like I was participating in the Tour de France.

Last year about this same time, we discovered – while driving 70 miles per hour – a long snake running along our windshield and then down into the car.  I love wildlife, but not when I am trapped in the same cage.

Life is an adventure.  We can never predict what we may find on our path today…or as in this case, the car.

And this afternoon, I went out to my car and found in the trap next to the garage, containing not one, but two chipmunks just waiting to go on a ride.

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