Darling or Deleterious
They’ve been scurrying about my yard and garden all summer. Planting things in my flower pots. I’m certain my pot of geraniums would not support an oak tree.
I thought my fence around the vegetable garden was enough to deter critters. Still, the little snitches found a way in and were doing a bit of harvesting themselves.
Yes, they are darling to look at, but their pirating habits are deleterious to MY storage efforts for the winter. I would make them walk the plank if I could capture the swift little scavengers.
Charmers or Chatterers
It may be charming to watch their scavenging antics about the yard, rolling an acorn around in their tiny paws, but where their pile of nuts ends up can become a bit of a nuisance. I went to grab the stroller out of the shed one spring and as I unfolded it their cache spilled and rolled about the floor.
Their nutty habits aren’t half as bad as their noisy ones. One Sunday morning I found myself increasing the volume on my television to try to hear the news over a chipmunk who was out on my deck incessantly calling, CUCK! CUCK! CUCK! I finally got up and went to the window to bark like a dog thinking it would scare him away. He just cocked his head at me, no doubt wondering why I was making such a strange loud ruckus.
You just can’t win with nature.
Tall Tales and Treasures
I looked around to see if there were stories about chipmunks. Of course who hasn’t heard of Alvin and his comrades, but I was hoping to find something more along the line of tall tales, or maybe some folklore treasures.
What I found was tales of how the chipmunk got its stripes. There were a few versions, several from Native American tribes. They were about what I expected and most hinted at how he had earned them from being too boisterous, annoying or in ridiculing another creature. Seems about right to me.
Enjoy my pastel sketch of a chipmunk that I made walk the plank.