Chip and Dale

So damn cute!  Who didn't love them?  (Well, maybe Mickey, when they messed up his Christmas tree decorating.)  And speaking of Mickey, how is it that he was so much larger than Chip and Dale?  Disney got away with an awful lot.  We won't even talk about how Goofy was a dog/man, but poor Pluto was just a dog.

So I don't know if Disney is responsible for the reality that most of us think that chipmunks are cute while every other rodent is . . . a rodent.  For years, I watched adorable little chipmunks scamper around the stone wall at the base of my driveway.  I was so careful not to run over one of them when I left the house in the car.  (Whoa!  Grammar nerd moment here:  did I really leave a house in the car?  How did it fit?)  I thought the little darlings were harmless.  And who doesn't appreciate a little cuteness in their everyday?  Yay, chipmunks!  Propagate and prosper!  Keep the Cuteness coming!

And then they found my garden.

First, it was just annoying, how they would scamper through the garden beds, scratching up a little dirt here, a little dirt there.  No real harm done.  Then, I began to notice the death of some of my plantings.  A sunflower down here, a pepper plant dug up there.  My neighbor and I discussed setting a trap, but I said, "Let's give it a day or two."  And sure enough, the next couple of days showed less damage. 

And then one day, when it was time for breakfast, I went to the garden to gather up some strawberries.  Only to find that someone or something had already feasted on my precious little berries.  At first I thought it was bugs and I got out the neem oil.  But today, I saw the perpetrator in the garden!  It was Chip!  I called an emergency meeting with my cat and directed her to take the rodent down.

And she did!

Now, a cat is a cat.  And a cat is not influenced by Walt Disney or the Cuteness Factor.  Cassie nailed that sucker and proceeded to play with it (a kind of cat foreplay) before making the final kill.  In fact, part of the play was taking it into the house!  I am happy to say that I predicted this move and beat her to the door before she brought her prey in through the cat door in the screen.  She retreated to a corner of the deck and dined on her catch, leaving some bloody remains for me to clean up.  (I retreated inside so I didn't have to watch.)

So it's done.  Well, Chip is done.  I think Cassie is out there stalking Dale as I compose this.  I am seriously rethinking that cat door in the screen.

So what am I in love with today?  Chip and Dale!  The Disney version, of course!  Reality bites, remember?  I think I'll venture over to youtube now and amuse myself with some chipmunk antics.  Maybe I'll even look for Alvin.