Sagabite

Sunny sends the following story of some chipmunk games he played a while back:

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I grew up in Florida, so I am no stranger to living side by side with wildlife.  It’s not all that rare to find snakes in the car, gators in the swimming pool, or wild boar blocking the road.   It wasn’t until I moved to Canada however, that I had a member of the wild kingdom actually move in with me and set up house.

I first got the idea that I might not be alone when I started hearing scratching noises occasionally.  “Could be a tree branch,” I remember thinking.  Then I started catching movement out of the corner of my eye.   “I must be seeing things, “I thought.  The proof that I had been invaded came when I noticed droppings in my grits.

My GRITS?!?  I have to order them from a friend in Florida!
This means war.  I just have no idea how to proceed at this point.  I haven’t even figured out who the ‘enemy’ is yet.  Based on the evidence, I have it narrowed down to a small rodent.

At this point, I am thinking there might not ever have to be a confrontation at all; the soiling of my grits had made me seal off any other food sources.  At this point,   I am figuring it is only a matter of time until whatever it is packs up and relocates.

Not long after my declaration of war, I was working on the computer and caught that familiar movement in my peripheral vision.  It was a chipmunk: just standing there on his hindquarters a few feet away.  Of course, as soon as I got up, off he went to his rent-free apartment within the house.

I have seen the enemy, but now what?   Chipmunks are too pesky to live with, but too cute to kill. For all I know, they are a protected species in this country.  What do I know about chipmunks?

I decided to bide my time and wait for him to make a mistake.  It didn’t take long.

A few days later, I returned home from town and saw him in the rear of the house.  Busted!  I blocked off his exits and somehow herded him into the bathroom.  Oh, this would be easy now.  The bathroom is about 8’x 10’, with an 8’ ceiling.  This will be a piece of cake!  I can trap him in the garbage can and put his little chippie-ass out!

Or maybe not.

This little 4-inch critter covered every inch of my small bathroom.  He climbed up the towels, and perched for a minute on top of the rack.  From there, he scrambled across the medicine cabinet and up the sleeve of my robe.  He flew out of there, bounced off the ceiling and landed on top of the curtain rod.  All the while, I am swinging the garbage can around trying to catch him.  After about 20 minutes, it is becoming clear this is not going to work.

I glanced at the open window-then up at the chipmunk-then back to the window.  That’s it!  I’ll cut the screen and herd him out the window!  Using a nail file, I cut a flap in the screen and bent it back.  I waved the garbage can around behind him, and into the bathtub he went.  It didn’t take long to guide him out of the hole to freedom.

I’m not sure whether he understood that the hole would get him away from me, or whether he would have hit that area of the screen eventually anyway.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s been almost a year since then, and I have not seen hide nor hair of any critters in the house since.  Maybe he spread the word: no free lunch in THAT house!