I Saved a Chipmunk Today!

Today I was heading out to the grocery store, but stopped to collect eggs from the farm before I left. I have a large galvanized pail in the yard outside of the fenced area that serves as a general water bucket for free-ranging chickens and my dog. As I was heading back to the house I noticed my dog looking into the pail. I looked in a saw a chipmunk, barely alive, and paddling slightly underwater with one foot. I quickly grabbed a piece of wood nearby and fished him out of the water.

It was quite cold out last night and it was a chilly day, so besides almost drowning, this little guy had to be suffering from hypothermia. I carefully put him up on my gas grill that was right there, and ran into the house to get a towel. I wrapped him up in the towel and quickly brought him inside.


He was barely alive. In fact, I thought he’d actually died while I was holding him and had to give him a little poke to see if he moved. He did. Barely. I carefully rubbed him a little dry with the towel, but quickly carried him up to my bathroom where I put my hairdryer on the low/warm setting and set about drying him off and warming him up. As I was blow drying him, I was also carefully rubbing him dry with a soft washcloth to aid in drying and to get his circulation going again.



When I got one side pretty dry, I carefully rolled him over and dried the other side as best I could.



When he was pretty dry all over, I wrapped him back up, grabbed my heating pad from the linen closet, and carried him downstairs. Bullet, who personally felt responsible for helping aid his rescue, was waiting to greet him.


I turned the heating pad on low and grabbed an empty box from the garage and cut a few small air holes into the top. I set the heating pad in the bottom of the box and covered it with a washcloth. I lay the chipmunk in the box, taped it securely shut, and set him in my bathroom where I shut the door. In case he gnawed his way out while I was at the grocery, I didn’t want him tearing up the house.


I finally headed out to the grocery store, and anxiously returned to check on my patient about 45 minutes later. Hoping for the best, I took the box out into the driveway before I opened it.


Before I’d even opened the box completely, the chipmunk jumped out and scurried off. He ran so fast that this is the only photo I could get as he departed.


But if I zoom in on the photo, you can see he’s alive, and looking like he had a good blow dry!


You know how you always see drowning victims throwing up after they’ve been saved? Well, when I was carrying the box back in the house, I looked inside and there, in the corner, was a little pile of cracked corn. Cracked corn is part of the scratch grains that I give to the chickens every day, and our yard has become a favorite foraging ground for every chipmunk around. Since I hadn’t left any food in the box for him, he’d obviously thrown up the cracked corn that he’d eaten that morning.


So, I feel as if I’ve done my good deed for the day. Maybe for the week. And that chipmunk has a crazy story to tell to his friends around the woodpile tonight.