Tunnel Vision

I was transferring my photographs from my laptop to my desktop computer this afternoon and came across this picture of an Eastern Chipmunk that lives under my parents’ back deck. All day long this little guy sits under the bird feeder collecting the uneaten seeds knocked to the ground by the birds. I can watch this little guy all day long scurry around the yard.

Over the years, I have saved more than my share of chipmunks. Most of the time, it is rescuing them from one of the neighborhood cats. Despite their skittish nature around potential predators, chipmunks appear to have tunnel vision or very poor eyesight. Too often, I have watched them run directly into the path of waiting cat. Not a very smart move on their part.

But one chipmunk episode remains embedded in my memory despite occurring more years ago. I was at my sister’s home on a cool fall day when she called out to say that a chipmunk had fallen into her in-ground pool. Using her screen paddle, I scooped the little guy out of the cold water. It was obvious that the chipmunk was in shock for he lay listless in my hands. I immediately began treating him for shock, knowing that the longer the chipmunk was traumatized, the more likely he would die.

The first step in treating for shock is to warm the animal in a dark, quiet environment. As my sister wanted no part of a chipmunk in the house, I carried the animal to the shelter of the front porch. I nestled him under my sweatshirt where my body heat could warm his cold, wet body. Within an hour, I could feel him moving around and I was able to safely release him back into the yard.

Feeling content about saving yet another animal, I went about the rest of the day ignorant of the side effects of being a Good Samaritan. At bedtime as I changed into my pajamas, I found that the entire length of my body from my waist to my feet was covered with raised red bites. In my own tunnel vision of saving the animal, I had forgotten that chipmunks are notorious for being flea infested. While the chipmunk warmed under my sweatshirt, the fleas decided that a dry warm human body was a better habitat than a wet, cold chipmunk. How I went through the entire day without noticing that I was bitten or even itchy is beyond me. But that didn’t last long. For almost a week afterwards, I had to cover myself in calamine and dressed in long pants.

Well, we all have tunnel vision at one time or another, making choices that in hindsight weren’t very smart. Guess I cannot fault the chipmunk for lapses in judgment when I am guilty as well.