Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for November 25, 2020

Love the one sitting there, dangling his little paws.

Nuts to you! Nuts to all of you!

Sixteen years ago, there were chipmunks all over my yard, playing in the ivy, drinking at the creek in the little ravine just beyond the back fence, teasing the cats, trying to get at my bird feeders.

About ten years ago, while washing breakfast dishes, I see out my kitchen window something plunge from above into the ravine. In a moment, it flies up and out.

A red hawk carrying a chipmunk.

Days later a second one appears, and soon after that, baby hawks.

There are no more chipmunks in the neighborhood. For a time, I sometimes came across an occasional rabbit skin, but haven’t seen a rabbit in a while.

I haven’t seen the hawks in about two years. Maybe nothing left to eat? I live on the edge of a state forest park, so I imagine they moved there for better hunting.

The ’munks were fun to watch. The rabbits were cute. The hawks were beautiful.

But nature is red in tooth and claw.

I still have songbirds, wild turkeys, fearless deer, snakes, frogs, interesting insects.Rumors of coyotes.

Wallace: you should see the nest in my roomWallace mom: uh excuse me the

After Wallace got all the birds in his bedroom sorted out, he found he had some extra space. So, naturally, some chipmunks were in order.

The chipmunk lad of Snug harbor.

I trapped a chipmunk and kept it for a pet when I was his age. It became very tame, but I let it go after a week or two.

Chipmunks are just rats in fancier coats. Adorable? Not when they’re chewing through your Internet cable.

Mice started storing dry corn against my Toyota’s heat shield under the hood; every time the engine heated up I could smell it toasting..

Wallace is a true Mother Nature’s son.

I wonder if Sterling stalks the chipmunks in Wallace’s room.

Yesterday, I had a squirrel that was gnawing the frame of my patio door. I shot it.

When he does stuff like that he’s kinda adorable also.

I hate chipmunk! One of the nasty, noisy, lil rodents gnawed on all four of the hyacinths bulbs I had set out to harden off, b/f planting them. It ate just enough of each one to figure out it didn’t like any of them & they all died. Then a Cooper’s Hawk family moved into the neighborhood. I’ll hear chippie’s insane “chirking” noise & a few days later, silence reigns. I guess chipmunk is high on Cooper’s Hawk list of essential foods!

That is one very cool mom!

When I was 8 or 9 years old, I collected a whole bunch of acorns at the park. Stuffed my pockets with ’em. Once I got home, I tucked my lovely new collection into a little red suitcase with my various other treasures, and put it in my closet. A few days later, my mom walked into my room to discover a whole bunch of little white worms, dozens of them, emerging from my closet and wriggling merrily around the room. They had apparently come from the acorn collection. No idea what they were, but I still remember the shriek when she found them.

I used to think squirrels were cute, too. Then they started chewing engine bay wires costing me hundreds in repairs!

Wallace, when counting your blessings for Thanksgiving, the first one should be having a mother as wonderful as the one you have…

My cousins had a place in Florida and on one trip there was a strange smell coming form the air conditioning.They took it to a garage and the mechanic started to take it apart when a chipmunk jump out at him and out the door. At some time it had made a nest in the a/c and it was full of nuts other chipmunk things.

Adorable and very distructive.

While my family was doing school at home, my sister heard a faint buzzing noise coming from outside. She looked out the window and saw a cicada… being eaten by a chipmunk. I can never look at chipmunks the same now that I’ve seen their true nature.

I’m reminded of Groundhog Day, “Now don’t drive angry …”

Consistently the best mom ever.

Just wait until they climb under the hood and start chewing all the wires.

A woman at my church pulled into the parking lot one Sunday morning a few years ago, left her car to come up the walk to the building, and suddenly her car was on fire! The fire department guys found a squirrel’s nest in the engine compartment.

Chipmunks, the other, other white meat.

WALLACE McCLELLAN THE MAN OF NATURE.

Will “Tasty Waves” Henry – this reminded me of Wallace https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10218876378648192&set=a.1462740376191

My sole encounter with chipmunk naughtiness was during a camping trip. We woke up to excited chittering to find that dozens of the little homunculi had peeled away the aluminum foil over our large tray of (fire-baked!) gingerbread and were squabbling over the last crumbs.

I don’t leave food in my car and it’s home to mice anyway. Our house is within a few yards of a salt-marsh. Mice happen.