Dinky Toys

It is just a couple of days since I recounted the story of Smokey the cat who was partially baked in a Yorkist oven range by my mother in law.

It was of course entirely an accident.

I would challenge any family in their role as custodians of domestic pets to say that their experiences had been completely tragedy and trouble free.

Be it hamsters, rats, white mice, stick insects, the primary school goldfish billeted during the summer vacation, budgerigars, parakeets, mynah birds, cats, dogs, reptiles, micro-Vietnamese pigs or guinea pigs there is always a risk of injury, death or that horrible moment on finding the cage, rotastack, bowl, aviary, vivarium or pen empty of its usual resident or residents.

This was the case again involving my Mother in Law and a Chipmunk.

There is no need to alert the animal welfare people to a persistent threat to wildlife by Maureen. It was just another one of those adventures that owners and their pets embark upon together although rarely by mutual consent.

The exotic animal belonged to my brother in law whilst he was living at home in his early twenties. It was certainly a typically friendly and funny creature which thrived on contact with humans and gave hours of entertainment from within its expansive cage.

Its name, Dinky, summed up a compact and perfectly formed small rodent. The natural markings were a beautiful sight in particular the almost "go-fast" striping down its back which serve to give a fearful appearance to dissuade predators in the wilds of its habitats in Northern America or wherever its Siberian cousins have spread to through Asia.

Dinky was a very active chipmunk cavorting about through the swings and obstacle course of his cage keeping my brother in law awake during the hours of darkness when he was on a long shift of daytime working and vice versa on his night shift rota.

My Mother in Law would take it upon herself to make sure the pet was fed and watered during Carl's unsociable work schedule and would also enjoy the exhibitionist antics provided as though a means of saying thank-you for the housekeeping efforts. It was therefore a great shock to Maureen to find, one day, that Dinky had managed to slip the catch on the cage door and make a bid for freedom.

Being a gregarious creature Dinky had not actually gone very far and indeed seemed to take great pride in just hanging about in the boughs of a tree in the back garden.

A chipmunk, whilst making a relatively easy to manage pet, is still very much a wild animal and is known to be notoriously difficult to recapture if devious enough to make it to the outside world.

A verbal appeal for reasonableness went unheeded as you would expect it to. The distribution of tasty nuts and seeds on the ground at the base of the new residential address for Dinky was not fruitful. The cage, extracted from Carl's bedroom and carefully manoeuvred down the steep stairs and through the house, was positioned in proximity to the tree platform and the door left enticingly open.

Putting yourself in the position of a chipmunk and given the choice between a lush, deliciously edible bit of greenery and a metal enclosure you might well do as Dinky did and just stay put. The tree was a marvellous viewing platform for the neighbourhood and hard to relinquish for that quality alone.

Maureen flitted back and forth from the house to the foot of the tree making encouraging noises and offering ever more interesting titbit and snacks but not enough to be of interest. She was dreading that moment of having to inform Carl that his pet had absconded although being able to point out where Dinky had got to was a crumb of comfort. Duncan, son in law and next door neighbour had been an observer of the proceedings or lack of them having been unable to avoid the events of the previous few hours as had been the case with many of the local residents.

The antics of a naughty chipmunk was quite an event for the street.

Duncan's contribution to the recovery attempt was a long length of black plastic rainwater downpipe.

He fed one end through the aperture of the cage and rested the other just offset to the tree trunk.

A handful of best chipmunk food was spread at the mouth of the pipe and another carefully thrown into the dark hole. He then walked away casually and stepped into the house for a cup of tea.

This new strategy did seem to catch the attention of Dinky. A game appeared to be in the offing and he could be seen working his way carefully, suspiciously but with obvious intent through the foliage and down to ground level. Like a rat and an actual drainpipe Dinky disappeared from view very shortly to emerge 3 metres beyond in the cage.

He stayed put. It is likely that he was more than happy to have had his own adventure for a few hours. There were after all obvious benefits in occupying Carl's bedroom in that his usual position was slap bang in front of the big screen TV and usually there was a very full viewing programme to fill up his days.