Spring

This morning I look out the kitchen window and see Freida on the picnic table, just like old times. She appears to be eating the seeds from a dandelion head. Chipmonks hibernate in the winter months, typically underground in borrows that can be 100 feet long, storing a small stash of food for when they wake up in the spring.
I shot this photo through the kitchen window, with a digital zoom. So sweet to see her, I take it as a good sign.

The End of the Story

Things seem to happen in four day intervals. During the days I would move Freida's box down to the picnic table. During the sunny days she would come out of her box running around on the table and back. I leaned a tree branch onto the table so she could easily climb down to the ground. I trained her by putting her on top of the limb near the edge, and quickly she would dash back in her box. Then I would place her a little further down the limb, she always found her way back. By about the fourth time I put her on the ground, and up the limb she ran back to her box. It wasn't long and she was coming down on her own and running five or six feet out across the grass and back. It was fun sport for her, Izzy was quite taken with her new friend as well. I was still feeding her milk at night, and started to introduce her to bread crumbs, blackberries, and various seeds during the day. I started giving her sunflower seeds which I would crack open with my teeth to show her where the good stuff was hiding. She loved those sunflower seeds. These days on the picnic table lasted for a little over a week. I was hoping I wasn't going to have to sleep on the ground in a pile of wood chips to give her the idea there was more to life then a cardboard box!
Then one day I had to run to the hardware store, when I came back I checked up on her and the box was empty! Of course I worried that something got her or maybe the dog ate her or some such. Luckily as the sun was setting up the limb she came to nest down for the evening and get her warm milk. This was the start of her being gone all day, but always at night she would come back to her little box. I always would put her up at night so nothing could get to her. I think it was four days this routine of being gone all day and coming back at night—until one night she decide to stay in the woods. My lose was her gain. The next day I was sitting at the picnic table talking on the phone and sharing this latest update. Just as I said I had not seen her for a whole day I looked over at the woods edge and there was Freida, sitting on her back legs on a stump looking at me from a distance. She looked quite confident and content. She never did come back to her box after that. She was ready for more exciting adventures and my job was done. I would periodically put a handful of sunflower seeds down by her little spot, because I know they are her favorite. I see her running among the branches on the woods edge. She seems happy with her new chipmonk friends, and she is free. That is Freida story.

As days go by.

Outside, I kept her in a box perched up on a hand rail and out of harms way. After a couple weeks at most, she was getting bigger, more healthy and definitely frisky. I always talked to her and called her name before I disturbed the box. Often she would come out from under her blankets in anticipation. She was always eager to climb into my hands to get her feeding. One day I had the back door open so the Izzy the dog could come in from her morning meandering. The birds were singing and the morning air was warm here in the Willamette Valley, I sat at the desk in my kitchen working on the computer. It was getting to be late morning and it was past time to feed Freida I had just thought to myself. Finally I was at a stopping point, as I pushed my chair back and stood up I was startled by something running across the middle of the floor towards the refrigerator. Oh no it was another chipmonk! What in the world, how, another baby chipmonk in my house non-the-less, where did it come from? I was standing there contemplating the dilemma of how to get a chipmonk out from under my fridge. I had visions of it chewing the wiring in half. Izzy is coming in the back door with her nose down to the ground like she was sniffing a trail and she followed it into the kitchen. Just in the same moment that chipmonk comes out from the near side of the fridge on a collision coarse with the dog nose to nose both startled. The dog stood there looking down, the chipmonk stood there looking up like it was a choreographed meeting of the three stooges. As the chipmonk looked up at me dumbfounded I said "Freida???" She came right up to me, I could not believe it, it was Freida!!! I just reached down and picked her up. Freida.



She had never even left her box before today, let alone left her box perched up high on the handrail, down the post, across the back porch, down the stairs and in the back door, across the Kitchen. When I had stood up from the desk I think now she was coming across the kitchen floor to see me and possible climb up my leg- saying "hey, where's my breakfast!" I probably would of had a coronary if I felt something unexpected clawing on my leg. What a feat for sweet little Freida. Maybe a coincidence or maybe she was pretty smart for a wild little critter. I was so proud of her!

Triage

I did not give it much thought over night, however, the next morning I was back at the computer and right off I heard that familiar chirp. When I went down to the woods edge, that poor chipmonk was right where I left her the day before. I could see there was a yellow jacket up underneath her, maybe the smell of death was in the air. This yellow jacket is the carnivorous type that steals ham off your picnic sandwich. I do not know if it was biting her or not, but I suspect that is why she was crying so loud. I chased off the yellow jacket and scooped up the baby. She felt cold in my hand, oh boy, not a good sign. Now it was a life and death mission with a quick assessment of the appropriate triage. I brought her in the house and put some water on the stove to heat up. First thing I did was got a box and towel. I poured the hot water into a pint mason jar and put it under the towel and wrapped the little chipmonk in there to warm her up. Immediately I was off to the store to get some half and half...

For the first couple days I was changing the hot water bottle every four hours, warming the half and half and feeding it to her with a eyedropper. She responded well to the pampering as this went on for days. She was making progress getting stronger and starting to fill out with a soft coat of hair. As I talked to her in reassuring tones I named her "Frieda". Now that she was out of the woods so to speak, I started taking pictures of her...


As time went on I was only changing the hot water bottle once in the evening to give her a chance to cozy down for the night. I was still feeding her about every four hours. She had a ferocious appetite for such a small critter, drinking down maybe 3 if not 4 eyedroppers every feeding...

The Rescue

It was summer and warm out, all the doors and windows where open. It was morning and with a deadline to meet I sat at the desk working on the computer, tap tap tap... I worked into the afternoon. All morning I was hearing this chirping, without giving it much thought I figured it was a vociferous bird. After a while however I am thinking what in the heck keeps making that incessant noise. During a afternoon break I could see Izzy the guard dog had her nose down at the crack of the front porch door. Curious to see what was up, I flung the door open; Izzy lept out taking a big snap at something tucked up tight to the house. Oh my god, as I pulled the dog off I could see it was a helpless naked little chipmonk laying flat on her back making these weak and pathetic little baby chipmonk chirps. I have no idea how in the world she ended up on the porch some five feet off the ground. Luckily Izzy did not seem to have hurt the poor thing. What am I going to do with a baby chipmonk I ask myself. I sat her up on the hand rail hoping by some miracle she would crawl back to where she came, and I went back to work. Forty-five minutes later I checked on her and she had not moved an inch. Bummer. I took her down to the woods edge thinking her momma would hear her an find her, then all would be well. I went back to work...

Freida

This is Freida, she is my monkey—chipmonkey to be precise. I raised her from a naked and helpless little thing, abandoned. I found her on my front porch one day, nursed her back to health, raised her and was able to reintroduce her to the wild. I still see her periodically, and more often I hear her talking with her new friends on the woods edge, not so far from where she grew up in a towel-lined cardboard box. A success on all fronts. This is Freida's Story—"Chip Monkey Chronicles" from the Oregon backwoods...