Well, think me up with a cup of coffee…

The fugitive’s name is Chip-chan…Go get her!

As I wrote about it before, I have a female chipmunk named ‘Chip-chan’. I clean up her cage once in a week. I did it yesterday. There had been an accident at the time.

I thought I had to clean up the cage before my disciple(a bit archaic and unsuitable expression, but I think most Japanese, especially English learners, like the word) came to my room. The smell of her feces and urine can easily emanate from her cage as summer is coming. It was so disgusting. That’s why I needed to get rid of the smell. I tried to finish cleaning the cage in a rush before the desciple came. I usually don’t care of Chip-chan run out of the cage while cleaning up the cage. She always comes back to the cage soon. But yesterday, I didn’t have enough time. I tried to keep Chip-chan from running away from the cage with the lid of the cage while cleaning. But my idea didn’t work. She fled from the cage. Fugitives can become reclusive. Chip-chan raced around my room, got surprised with my loud voice ‘Chip-chan!!! Stop!!!’, and hid behind the furniture.

The disciple already came to my room, so I had to leave Chip-chan alone. My messy room let the disciple know something happened. I explained the situation to the disciple and asked her not to mind the chipmunk even if she saw the chipmunk running around in my room. But of course, Chip-chan prevented the disciple from focusing on a test. ‘I hear Chip-chan moving. She’s rustling behind the shelf’, said the disciple. I looked into the small space between the wall of my room and a concrete block holding the shelf. There Chip-chan was. I reached out my left hand and tried to catch Chip-chan. Ouch! She bit me on my fingers! I tried it again. Ouch! She did it again! I came up with an idea to attract Chip-chan with the sound produced when I shaked the bag containing her feed. She, when she is in the cage and hears the sound, always comes closer to me happily. But sadly, the idea didn’t work at the time. I couldn’t help feeling like a father having trouble communicating with his daughter.

Once chipmunks get surprised at something, they hide and don’t appear unless they come to know the danger is gone. I gave up catching Chip-chan in a short time. I decided to wait for her to come out. One hour passed. Nothing happened. No sound I heard. I wondered if she would get electrocuted. Rodents like gnawing anything, especially ones like electric cords. I started looking for her again. She was hiding in the same place: between the wall and the concrete block. I tried to stretch my left hand again, but it didn’t work. With a slight rustle, she was gone. I tried to look into the small space from the other side, but I couldn’t see anything. Anything except her stripe pattern on her body in a hole of the concrete block!!

What should I do? Pulling out her with my hand? One good idea sprung up: stuffing something thin like a notebook between the floor and the concrete block, covering the upper part of the hole with something, carrying the concrete block with Chip-chan, and putting off the thin stuff under the hole.

It worked!

I managed to put a lid on the cage before she escaped again. She was violently racing in the running wheel while I carried the cage to the usual spot in my room. Ever since, she has seemed to be frightened by me. I couldn’t help but feel like a lonely father ignored by his daughter again.