Rodent Karma
Yesterday morning, driving to the office, I saw a squirrel get hit by the car in front of me. He had done that typical squirrel-about-to-get-hit thing: dashed into the road, saw the car, dashed back, reversed, reversed again, dashed forward again, hit the tire. The sort of unfolding drama where you say "No! No! Yes! No! Yes! No! NO!!" I saw him knocked in a somersault, land on his back, and collapse motionless. I hate seeing animals snuffed out like that. I always think of 9, and how, after all this effort to keep him from dying of heart failure, he might at any moment die from being hit by a car or falling off a fence or getting mauled by a dog or stoned by a neighborhood delinquent. Or how this could happen to any of us, for that matter. I dislike being reminded of the extreme fragility of life.
Back home last night, we heard a strange clattering and chirping sound upstairs. After a lot of searching, we found a terrified chipmunk cowering in the bathroom behind 9's litter box. Is it easy to get a chipmunk out of your second-floor bathroom? No, it isn't. He was very small, a very good climber, and very, very fast. After trying various capturing stragegies and chasing him from room to room, he ran up a window screen and hid in an inaccessible point behind the window frame. I opened the window, figuring he might eventually come down and find his way out, but it was a long, shear drop to the ground, with nothing to climb down. I found a piece of thick sisal rope in the cellar and lowered a length of it out the window to the backyard. I left him a little dish of water on the windowsill and went back to bed. In the morning, he was gone. I think he actually climbed down the rope. I feel like yesterday the rodents sort of broke even.
P.S. He was awfully cute. Check out the "STOP, In the name of love!" dance move he did while trapped behind the window.
Back home last night, we heard a strange clattering and chirping sound upstairs. After a lot of searching, we found a terrified chipmunk cowering in the bathroom behind 9's litter box. Is it easy to get a chipmunk out of your second-floor bathroom? No, it isn't. He was very small, a very good climber, and very, very fast. After trying various capturing stragegies and chasing him from room to room, he ran up a window screen and hid in an inaccessible point behind the window frame. I opened the window, figuring he might eventually come down and find his way out, but it was a long, shear drop to the ground, with nothing to climb down. I found a piece of thick sisal rope in the cellar and lowered a length of it out the window to the backyard. I left him a little dish of water on the windowsill and went back to bed. In the morning, he was gone. I think he actually climbed down the rope. I feel like yesterday the rodents sort of broke even.
P.S. He was awfully cute. Check out the "STOP, In the name of love!" dance move he did while trapped behind the window.
posted by Turbo at 11:41 AM
3 Comments:
While driving to work? Bike?
Yeah. Me neither, so much, lately.
Have you considered submitting this photo to cuteoverload.com ? They'd love it.
Is sad. I sometimes think I see evolution to the smarter squirrel. As a kid, I was folding papers (route) and this siamese cat came by. it apprached a busy street, and, I kid you not, looked both ways before starting to cross when suddenly from the nearest side street a car came roaring out, turned and ran over him breaking his back. he jaggedly made it tothe side of the road and died painfully.
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