10/13/2011

Last night we had an adventure... with a chipmunk. Not just any chipmunk, mind you. This was an albino chipmunk (who has ever heard of such a thing?!) and it was in our own backyard. Seems we often have wild animal adventures at this house.

I was walking with my two kids, picking up outside toys they'd left out. It was time to head in for supper. I stopped to say something and before taking another step, looked down and saw this little white animal in the grass. I wasn't sure what it was, as I'd never seen anything like it. It didn't take off running when it noticed us. It was small like a mouse. Maybe a chipmunk. But white. And scared to death, breathing heavy and just hoping we weren't going to hurt it. My son touched it before I could get the "don't touch it!" out of my mouth. Thankfully it didn't bite him.


It tried to run away, but moved slowly and appeared hurt. We followed it a few feet when it turned around the jumped on my son's pant leg! How I wish I had a picture of his face - and mine - at that moment. He screamed. I screamed. The chipmunk ran down his leg and over his shoe and back under a leaf on the ground. My son turned and ran!

When my husband arrived home a few minutes later, he went out with me to find the little critter. We did find him, trying to climb up a tree. He made it about 15 feet up and then fell to the ground. We caught him in this bucket to examine him further. He is a chipmunk. He is white (or light gray) and has no hair, except on his tail which is a proper-colored, furry and long chipmunk tail.

Very odd indeed. We felt sorry for him, as there was clearly something wrong with him since he was unable to climb trees or run fast, like most chipmunks. He was scared to stay in our bucket and tried to get out, so we let him go.

My son thought he looked more like a mouse, so he coined the term "chipmouse" and that is what we are calling him. :-)

Bye-bye, little chipmouse!