When we moved in, there was a chipmunk, a cute little thing, who hung out on the back porch. He soon figured out that the new cat in the house didn't come out on the back porch. So he stayed. Pippin quite looked forward to his visits. The chipmunk would pretend he didn't know Pippin was watching, and Pippin (who if you've read the story of Pippin and the mice, you know he's not after the chipmunk for prey) would quietly and happily watch the chipmunk. Probably with dreams of playing with him, friendly like.
The next year the chipmunk turned up again. But it was this year that I started letting Pippin out in the backyard when I was out making the patio and the various flower beds.
The chipmunk wasn't stupid. He knew cats, so he made sure he was nowhere to be found when Pippin was out. He had a network of tunnels under the ground that let him go anywhere he wanted under the deck and the one side of the house.
But once the chipmunk made the mistake of poking his head up out of his hole before Pippin went back inside, and while Pippin was looking in his direction.
Pippin was fascinated and intrigued! The chipmunk wasn't just cat tv! It was real! He dashed over to the hole where the chipmunk had already ducked away. Pippin sighed, and with a cat's legendary patience, settled down to wait.
He outwaited the chipmunk. Up periscope came the chipmunk, and he was too far out to reverse direction when he realized Pippin was still there. (To be fair to the chipmunk, it had been about an hour). The chipmunk dashed madly for another entrance to his tunnel network. Pippin dashed madly after him. The chipmunk made it, just in time.
Pippin gave the hole a glare, sighed again, and settled down for another long wait.
About half an hour after that, I was ready to go in. I called Pippin from the patio door, wondering what his reaction would be.
I really was expecting hesitance to come in, but it appeared as though Pippin welcomed the excuse to leave the frustrating hole that refused to produce the chipmunk. Pippin came in quite readily, without even hesitating.
That was the first and last time Pippin ever caught the chipmunk outside again, although the chipmunk continued the porch visits when Pippin was on the safe side of the door!
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