The Chipmunk Thump

As I've mentioned in the past, we have a gerbil. Sweet little Sandy is a cheerful, funny little fellow. His most endearing quality is his reluctance to bite us, even when he really wants to. We all appreciate that about him. We've never gotten anything worse than a gentle nibble.

But one of his other, almost as endearing qualities is the way he thumps his feet. When he's scared, excited or sometimes just bored, he'll start to thump his fuzzy little back feet. Thu-thump, thu-thump, thu-thump. It's very cute.

As I've probably also mentioned in the past we have a bird feeder out back that attracts a wide variety of birds, many appropriately-named squirrels (Rusty, Buffy, Randy (short for Random squirrel), Long John Squirrelver (with his one eye - I really need to crochet that squirrel an eye patch!) and Skrawny), and best of all, chipmunks. Chipmunks are so cute! And they keep the cat entertained too. The cat has come to know that when Mommy starts talking in a high-pitched voice out the back door that some cute tasty little critter is present. The cat will race over to the door and stare out, tail twitching.

The other day as a cute little chipmunk sat in a pile of bird seed, stuffing his cheeks, he saw me step up to the door. He perked up, ready to run and I saw his little back foot lift and thump down several times. It was so cute. I had no idea chipmunks did that! When he saw that I wasn't coming out he relaxed and stuffed a few more pounds of seeds into his cheeks. But whenever I moved, he would give a thump or two, a warning that danger was nearby and he got ready to run.

Eventually, when his cheeks were so full that he could barely keep from toppling over onto his face, he scampered off.

Quack!