So this happened on our last camping trip:
Yeah, I know. I probably have some sort of hantavirus coursing through my bloodstream now, diligently working its way into my brain. But chipmunks are notoriously cute, and I had nothing but time and peanuts. And man, was she a little whore for the peanuts. We named her Raihbys, because Rabies was just too conventional. Why not make her spell her name every day for the rest of her life, right?
At first I shelled the peanuts for her, and handed them to her one by one. She was a bit tentative, reaching out slowly taking the peanut gently, and it was really cute. After about an hour she was like "GIMME MY PEANUTS, BITCH!" and she'd jump around on my lap and nudge my hand and if I didn't let go of the peanut fast enough she'd yank it right out of my fingers. Finally I just started opening my palm flat with a pile of peanuts on it, and she'd jump up on my hand and stuff her face until the pile was gone.
Initially she didn't really know what to do with unshelled peanuts. She quickly figured out she could break them open, take the peanuts from inside and stuff them in her pouch, but that turned out to be a lot of work, and it apparently took too much time.
Eventually, she dispensed with opening them up at all and just pounded them like a porn star, shoving one in each pouch and a third in the mouth. Then she'd hop away into the woods, and a few minutes later we'd hear her coming back and we'd do it all over again.
We made her promise to tell her cousins to lay off our garden, too, but I'm pretty sure she was too high on peanuts to understand what the hell we were talking about.
In other news, the first one is mostly done:
Still needs to be sanded, painted and oiled… and then I only have three more to go. I tried to convince my wife to just get folding chairs for the other three spots. I told her we could go for sort of a shabby chic look, but she wasn't buying it.
Edit: Chair above with the finish applied:
Edit: Chair above with the finish applied:
I want a chair!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd, I watch the mast crop...and pray each year that it is sparse. A bad year of acorns means fewer squirrels trying to eat my house, and less yard work for me.
So you can have your rodents...sorry...I hate the little gnawers!!!
Peace <3
Jay
Aw!!! So cute. The chair looks great!
ReplyDeleteThat was by far the CUTEST thing ever. I can't believe how domesticated that little chipmunk became so quickly. I feel sorry for the next campers though. They are going to be attacked in the middle of the night from an angry chipmunk demanding shelled peanuts, $1000 in unmarked Payday bars and a small charter plane or they'll never see their kids again....:-)
ReplyDeleteBut, hey at least it made for some awesome video.
Oh and the chair came along quite nicely. I kind of like it in its raw form not painted though.
Painted? Blasphemy! Surely you meant stained.
ReplyDeleteThe first video was adorable, but the second one - I question your choice of a crotch shot for the cover, given the content.
Milk paint, it's traditional. Since they are made out of three different types of wood, it evens it out. It's my wife's crotch, blame her.
DeleteI love chippies! There so cute!
ReplyDeleteAlthough-
Damn evil little critters.
How I really, really hates them!
Cute-evil I guess.
Vidna.
You're going to be dead by lunchtime today. Great knowing you!
ReplyDeleteI've started storing nuts. I don't know WTF is wrong with me.
DeleteLittle Rhaibees (sp.?) sure was a cutie. I'm astonished that three unshelled peanuts fit in her mouth at once... I bet that Alvin and his buds would REALLY enjoy meeting her, eh?
ReplyDeleteI don't know about hantavirus, unless your camping trip was out here in Yosemite. Bubonic plague on the other hand...
ReplyDeleteAnd that's a good video!..........
ReplyDeleteInstead of peanuts I feed them coffee beans.
ReplyDeleteSpeedy Gonzales was a mouse, right?
DeleteCute little guy or girl. Fun to watch it taking those nuts. But still, a little bite or scratch, and that's six injections for you over about 4 weeks. And the first one is immunoglobulin. Ever have that one? Feels like their pushing paint in.
ReplyDeleteIs that for rabies? I am pretty sure chipmunks generally aren't carriers.
DeleteThe key word is "generally." Chipmunks may not be carriers generally, but they're wild mammals, so some are going to have it.
DeleteAnd unless you bring the chipmunk that bit or scratched you to the doc so they can prove it doesn't have rabies, they're going to give you the vaccinations just in case. Because if they don't, and you start getting symptoms, it's too late to save you.
Bottom line: You get the shots.
By the way, rabies is an interesting disease. It makes the infected animal less fearful, so it will more willingly approach other animals. And people. It's one way the virus spreads itself around.
Anyway, give Chippers a little pat for me next time you see him.
How long did it take from noticing the lil adorable thing to having her eat from your hand? Grinning like a fool looking at those pictures and clips.
ReplyDeleteAbout a day, I'd say. We started throwing her peanuts on one day, and by the next she was practically digging in our pockets.
DeleteOh My Gawd - that is so cute! I love the last video where she is deep throating the peanut, shell and all. She looks like a pro! Seriously though, it was so adorable!
ReplyDeleteThat is so neat! I showed my kids and they thought it was the coolest thing ever! Now they're hoping to see a chipmunk. They had me by peanuts.
ReplyDeleteKMarie
Very nice design on the chair.
ReplyDeleteThanks Blair!
DeleteYou are taking your life in your hands by feeding those cute, but germ laden, rodents. http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/09/us/california-squirrel-plague/index.html
ReplyDeleteKathy
Nah, that's out west. Even then, it's pretty rare. Plus we were pretty liberal with the purell afterwards. But then again, I also have been known to ride a bike without a helmet on occasion.
DeleteI adore those chairs. And milk paint is my absolute favorite- stain sucks. (and I am the daughter of a woodworker- GASP!!)
ReplyDeleteYou haven't seen funny til you give a chipmunk a walnut. I did that this summer (couldn't resist) He/She couldn't fit it in its mouth, though it tried, and finally just hooked it's teeth into the shell and scampered off.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents had "tame" chipmunks in their yard and when you'd bring in grocery bags the chipmunks would run up your leg and jump in the bag to mug you on your way in the house!
You haven't seen funny til you give a chipmunk a walnut. They can't fit it in their mouth - though they will try. I did it this summer and the chipmunk finally just hooked its teeth into the walnut shell and ran off.
ReplyDeleteMy grandparents had "tame" chipmunks in their yard and the little boogers would run up your leg and jump in the grocery bags to mug you when you were trying to get in the house!
Nice chair! What are the three different woods?
ReplyDeleteAlso, chipmunks area very low incidence carrier of rabies or hantavirus. And plague is only endemic out west. But a bite is a bite (do not need to worry about scratches) and then the health department takes over....
The back, arm and spindles are red oak, the seat is white pine and the legs are maple. The oak and the maple came from trees I cut off my property -- the pine I got from a guy down the road who has one of those portable saw mil things.
Delete