Chippy's No Good, Very Bad Day

On our mini-farm we posses small animals of various kinds. From a mouse to guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens. They are fun to care for, and even more fun to watch. In addition to those, we have what we call our "free-range pets". Those are the ones that we frequently see, but do not intentionally feed or care for. We have a family of three deer, a gopher and her two babies (not sure if they've grown and left the nest yet or not), an occasional skunk or two (I'd rather they set up house elsewhere), and a few chipmunks. The chipmunks are especially adorable to watch. There's just something so cute about them, and the little squeaks and squawks that come from their tiny bodies. We've watched them burrow holes amid our house ever since we've moved in. We named them all Chippy. Yes, I said all. It's just too difficult to tell them apart.

Today Jack (our dog) discovered where one of their secret tunnels are. I grew suspicious when he started staring and lunging underneath our front porch. After retrieving him from that location a few times, I turned my attention back to what I was doing. Until I heard some tiny little yelps. Sure enough, there was Jack back under the porch, chasing the terrified chipmunk out. Ol' Chippy ran up a tree, clearly exhausted from the hunt. He just may have had a mini-stroke, for he stayed in that tree for a very long time...motionless. I called the girls over to show them and grabbed my camera for a quick snapshot. Isn't Chippy cute?

After shooing the dog back in the house, and giving him a small lecture on being kind to animals smaller than he, I turned to my task of staining the picnic table. Not even twenty minutes into my work, I heard a strange growling noise from behind me. It sounded oddly like a cat. A growling cat. I swung myself around to see where the noise was coming from. It was under Hub's truck. It was our cat. Mocha Latte. Growling. Under Hubs truck. With Chippy swinging from his jaws. Wiggling. And surely wishing he wasn't having such a bad day.

Oh, the commotion that went on. The girls shrieking and crying. The cat growling. The dog barking at the cat. Chippy squealing. I'm sure the neighbors had their phones in hand, prepared to dial 911 if need be. Or possibly just wondering what on earth our family was up to....again. Hubs came out and (for the girls' sake) chased the cat down and heroically freed Chippy's heinie from Mocha's mouth. Chippy scurried off, dragging his bloodied backside behind him. Poor Chippy. He had a pretty rough day. It ain't easy being a cute little chipmunk.