Return Of The Chipmunk

Just a few days after Cheria and I moved into our new home back in October we noticed that our property had a tenant - a feisty chipmunk had burrowed a home for himself (or perhaps herself?) underneath the concrete patio out back. Every day "our" chipmunk would scurry across the patio, gather some pine nuts from under a tree and then scamper back to its hole.

This went on for about a month or so, every morning like clockwork. It seemed that Mister (or Miss?) Chipmunk never missed a day of work! Then one day he didn't show up according to schedule, nor did we see him the next day - or the day after that either. It appeared that something had happened to our furry little tenant. Several possibilities ran through my mind, most of them not so good...

Perhaps Mr. Chipmunk had gotten himself run over by a car? Or maybe he had had a run-in with one of the dogs that run freely through our neighborhood? Or maybe he simply didn't like his new landlords so he decided to vacate the premises? I thought we would never know exactly what became of our chipmunk...

But a couple of mornings ago I was sitting at my desk typing away when Cheria yelled at me, telling me to come quickly and bring my camera. I walked into the bathroom and saw her pointing toward something out in the back yard - it was our chipmunk friend sitting up "groundhog style" about 20 feet from the edge of the house. I managed to snap off a few blurry pictures through the window screen before he took about three steps and disappeared down a hole!

Apparently Mr. Chipmunk had been a little uncomfortable living literally right outside his landlords' back door, so he moved...about 30 feet! But that 30 feet was apparently just enough to keep him out of our view until it came time for him to hibernate for the winter. But now we know that he (or she?) is still around and we couldn't be more pleased!

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