My friend, Jeanne, came over to see me at the Arbor Vitae Flea Market where I was selling books, while the DH and I were on vacation. She happened to mention a chipmunk ran inside her house. It was still there because she couldn't find it.
Later that evening we stopped by her house to say goodbye since we were leaving for home the following morning. The chipmunk was still there. She was getting nervous about what kind of damage it could cause, so she had the DH help her set up this giant trap which looked like it could even hold a rat. Thinking of the poor chipmunk getting caught in it made me feel really horrible.
Anyway, as luck would have it, Jeanne opened up the door which led to the family room and out ran the chipmunk. The DH and I tried to corner it in the hallway. It stared cutely up at us, before it ran past and hid under the couch. We opened the front and back doors. We pounded on the couch.
It ran out from its hiding place and out the back door, thank goodness. We all cheered since the trap would not need to be used and the critter would not be killed.
A life saved. It may have been a small one, but I still felt good about it. What about you? Have you had a similar experience?
Nothing on that scale, but I do take the lady bugs I find IN the house and gently encourage them to be OUTSIDE of the house!
ReplyDeleteTell your friend that's a first - I've never heard of a chipmonk entering a house!
ReplyDeleteMy husband captures and releases all bugs he catches in our house, except for flies and roaches. The receive no mercy!
L. Diane Wolfe
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net
Oh, Morgan, I thought YOUR life was saved!! Poor little chipmunk.
ReplyDeleteWe live in the Texas Hill country, among lots of trees---and deer.They live on our place as they do everyone else's out here. One day, I stepped on the back porch, and to the left, in the barbed wire fence, a deer had her back leg caught in the wire. She had tried to jump over, probably hit the top wire,it popped over the one below trapping one hind leg. so she was suspended there. Her other hind leg dangling in the air, and her front ones barely touching the ground. I thought I would die. I ran to get DH, thinking he would have to get his 22 rifle and put her out of her misery. But he got a tall step ladder and straddled it over the fence, right next to the deer's head. She froze, She did not move an eyelash. He put on thick leather gloves, climbed slowly up with wire cutters, and snipped one wire--she stayed still--two wires, and she dropped to the ground.Stunned, she lay there, my husband stayed still, she stood--her leg bleeding only a little,looked at him, turned and bounded off. I thought she would mangle herself if he came near--but she seemed to know what he was doing. Celia
Hi Morgan,
ReplyDeleteThat chipmunk could have been Alvin. Or Simon. Or Theodore. Thank goodness you saved him!
I'm not nearly so kind to insects that get in my house. I am nice to lady bugs, but spiders, roaches, beetles, and anything slithery definitely gets the fly swatter.
Depends how scary it looks whether or not I want it dead. I've captured insects in glasses and ran out the door with them to put them where they belong.
ReplyDeleteThat deer story is really touching, Celia.
Morgan Mandel
Our outdoor cat is a big hunter. Anything that crosses our lawn is taking its life in its hands. I came home one night and saw he had a baby bunny in his mouth. I trapped them on the porch and picked up the bunny and got him back into the woods where hopefully he ran off toward home. The cat came inside with us for a while.
ReplyDeletePhew! One little life saved from the Hunter.
Aw, what a story. Good for you! here in the UK we probably just think of chipmunks as cartoon characters, I can't imagine ever coming face to face with one under the sofa! I'm the sort who can't even swat a fly, I'm afraid. I catch wasps in jars if I can't get them out the window, and I have wrestled mice and the odd rabbit off my hunter cat, much to his fury and the disruption of the natural order, no doubt. ;-) I would have felt really good about the chipmunk too.
ReplyDeleteJane x