I was on the phone with my daughter this morning and opened the door for the cat without paying attention.
The cat came in and gifted us a very lively chipmunk. The half Jack Russell , Lilly, saw the chipmunk and the races we’re on.
I almost grabbed him in the kitchen (with heavy gloves) but missed.
From there into the dining room, then the living room, up the Christmas tree, and back.
Our neighbor had joined the chase by then because he is more agile than I am.
The varmint made the circuit again and made a fatal error - he ran in the half bath, Lilly and Frank in hot pursuit. Lilly beat Frank and she doesn’t believe in taking them alive.
Frank took him from Lilly but in the seconds she had him, it was over.
We prefer to release them alive, but ever since a squirrel bit Lilly on the nose , she has a hostile opinion of that family of critters.
Funny!
Reminds me of when we had a cat and dog. Both out cat would meow to come in. Dog ran in by cat
Dog had chippy package in mouth and the two of them wanted to play cat dog and chipmunk
Dog would drop chippy in kitchen and the race was on. Both in hot pursuit knowing their prey never went for the door
I had to remove many window screens so the chippy could exit… this usually took the better part of an hour with me trying to persuade it to the closest out with a canoe paddle
And the dog and cat regarded me as game spoiler
You see the dog was a Golden with a soft Golden Mouth. But she loved tossing chip pies in the air and watching them bounce
After the third toss they were usually gone
Chippies. Cute and brazen, but they’re still striped rats and can do major damage if they happen to take up residency in a summer place closed up for the winter. Good candidates for one of those wacky Farmers Insurance ads.
Eastern chipmunks are also vectors for Lyme disease ticks. The Western versions can carry fleas with bubonic plague and even hantavirus.
Cute they are but still pests.
Not pests. A food for owls hawks foxes weasels red squirrels coyotes bobcat and lynx.
Animals that are a joy to watch.
It’s all part of living in the woods
Kayamedic, I’d heard of squirrels raiding eating baby birds, but this is the first reference I’ve seen of them preying in chipmunks. Interesting.
everything preys on chippies!
Red squirrels have a preference for grain true. ( pine cone seeds… you find them all around the base of pine tree esp red pine) but it seems they are opportunistic
Baby chipmunk… Baby hare too.
Adult chippies are almost the same size as the reds so I would not expect them to be prey.
Those red squirrels have no tolerance for any other squirrel even other reddies… Seen them chase chippies and other reddies away from the debris pile under the bird feeder.
And scold!
@kayamedic said:
Not pests. A food for owls hawks foxes weasels red squirrels coyotes bobcat and lynx.
Animals that are a joy to watch.
It’s all part of living in the woods
And dogs ,cat’s, and snakes.
Willowlraf is correct in that lots of woodland cuties are Lyme vectors. And shouldn’t be handled.
I’ve lived around Lyme for 50 years recently Lyme was found ina 5300 year old mummy according to the Bay Area Lyme Foundation
There are so many tick born diseases now that we should stay indoors
Not!
Have a Powassan-free day !
And don’t eat any deer lest you Waste away.
We all are vectors!
It’s just some of us are chippy,
with others gettin’ squirrely,
like some conservative post-hippy.
And whatever that may plague us,
be it pandemic or small pox,
will show disease is in the breeze
when all run chicken housed with fox.