i am housesitting in rye, nh for the next couple weeks…it’s less than 2 miles to the beach…i volunteered.

the people for whom i am housesitting have two animals…pepper, a gorgeous black chow mix (who looks like he’d be a linebacker if dogs played football), and mr. tux…an extremely large black and white shorthair.  mr. tux is a formidable hunter, and i was warned he might bring me trophies.  i foolishly hoped that warning would be unnecessary.  and yet…within about 30 hours of my arrival, i heard my sister call down to me, “gwyn, you need to come up here.”

i had no idea what it could be.  was the cat doing something cute?  had pepper vomited on the clean, beige carpet?  no and no.  unless you think bringing in and imprisoning a live chipmunk behind the dresser is “cute”.  (i don’t, for the record.)

bek told me it was a bird.  i think i’m glad she was wrong…adding flying into the mix would have made it even more dramatic.

without further ado

first sight…um, bek…that’s got a tail.  it’s not a bird.

a little closer…i think i scared it, because while i was trying to find a position where i could see through the viewfinder and get closer…it made some sort of scrabbling noise…i was just as freaked out as it was.

getting this angle was rather tricky…there were only a few inches of clearance between the wall and the dresser…

mr. tux got locked out of the room…but he REALLY wanted to come back in and finish what he started.

like…REALLY.

the chipmunk was “persuaded”, with the help of a large metal ruler i found, to leave his safe haven behind that dresser…he ran under the next one.  gah!  then he ran into the bathroom, which was actually better…closed the door…found a towel and threw it over him.  i THOUGHT i had him all wrapped up in a hobo’s suitcase (y’know when kids dress up as hobos and they tie a handkerchief by all 4 corners on the end of a stick?)  i thought i had all the corners of the towel all closed.  i didn’t.  and, i shrieked like a very girly girl when it wriggled out.  i finally got it, though, and we went outside to release the poor thing.  (bek said she heard it squeaking about 5 hours ago when she laid down for a nap.)

i was going to do it very slowly so she could get a good “after” shot…but that thing wanted no part of it.  it was squirmy and escaped right away.

i’m outta here!

peace!

i think that’s enough adventuring for one night.  may your homes be chipmunk free.

(there was also a minor adventure today when i took the dog for a walk and it looked like he decided to drop his kids off at the pool in what appeared to be a large patch of poison ivy.  because p.i. is spread by the plant’s oil…and oil stays on a dog’s fur…and i get REALLY BAD POISON IVY…to the point where death is almost desirable…i looked up pictures of leaves on the internet and made my sister DRIVE with me down to the spot where it happened to get a second opinion.  she told me i was crazy, it wasn’t p.i….which meant i didn’t have to wash the dog w/ dish soap and a hose i couldn’t get to work anyway.  phew!)

seriously…isn’t housesitting s’posed to just be watering plants, bringing in mail, and putting some kibble in bowls?