I just saved a chipmunk's life. [View all]

[Curmudgeoness]

OK, I will admit, I didn't know whose life I was saving at the time. I have a gutter along my garage that empties into some sealed drain that probably is supposed to run the water out to the street, but it is stopped up with nearly 70 years of whatever. I was sitting on the porch and kept hearing this scratching noise....and after a while, I determined it was coming from this gutter. This thought about rodents, but figured that they could make their way out. This did not seem to be the case with this critter. Hmmm, maybe it was a bird???

It looked like taking the gutter apart would be iffy, and I didn't know how easy it would be to remove it from that drain, or put it back together if I did. So instead of taking drastic measures, I decided to drop a rope down the downspout and maybe, just maybe, that "bird" could climb up. I must have scared the critter shitless, because I heard nothing for over an hour....then all of a sudden I hear the banging around on the spout again, so I watched to see if the rope worked. It did! Lo and behold, out runs a little chipmunk.

I feel good now, I don't have to listen to the scatching and clawing, and I didn't have to disassemble the downspout!