The Backyard Zoo

by Jim Dunlap

"Chipmunks"

This week we received two chipmunks named Chip and Dale. They were purchased as pets when very young. Now six months later the hormones of sexual maturity have kicked in. As it happens, they are actually Chip and Delilah. Natural activity and a proclivity to bite prompted the owners to bring them to us.

Purchase was a bad idea. Where have you heard that before? Let us go for a little natural history. So far as I can tell these are grey-footed chipmunks from far west Texas. They are forest dwelling creatures whose haunts include downed logs and brushy hillsides where crevices in rocks offer retreats. When alarmed they scurry into holes. If you would like to skip over to Employment or Volunteer Opportunities, do it now, because here comes a personal experience. The hardest I have ever laughed was during a backpacking trip into the Pecos wilderness in northern New Mexico. I had just finished lunch and had been feeding a pair of chipmunks that were begging for food while sitting on my boot. I laid an empty plastic bag on the ground and one of the chipmunks entered the bag searching for yet another tidbit. He panicked and started rolling around. He rolled from one side of the campsite to the other. He rolled over bedrolls, backpacks, my legs, logs, my camplight, and everything else on the ground. I got the giggles and laughed so much I almost lost lunch! I guess you had to be there.

We thought about forming a group, but Alvin, Simon, and Theodore were booked. These two will be transported to west Texas in the spring (tra-la) and released. If you are out and about this week the critters and I will visit ‘Story Time’, Monday, February 11, 10:00 am, Barnes & Noble, 15th and Central Expressway. I’ll be signing one of my books, ‘They Don’t Have To Die,’ so come see us.

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