NASCAR RACES ON THE BACK PORCH

I have about 5 chipmunks I feed sunflower seeds to each day. They are up by 5:30am and chirping - ready for breakfast. I am so loyal to them they get their seeds before I even put the coffee pot on. Two or three them are the most regular and two of them are quite compatible as a team.

They have their own dishes (medium-sized, terra cotta saucers) and a white. decorative seed holder in the hands of a little boy and girl that has seen better days. These containers are placed on the top of an old dresser I painted enamel red and yellow and covered with a red oil cloth. At one end sits a metal flower container filled with brightly colored fake flowers that even fool the humming birds but which are intended to serve as perches for the birds that frequent the nearby bird feeder.

So, each morning, shaking the black, sunflower seeds in a clear plastic cup as I exit the back door, I head toward the dresser to fill the chipmunk "dishes." It's become such a tradition that there is frequently at least one chipmunk sitting at the top of the sledgehammer staff propped behind the dresser waiting for me to clear the area before I have finished filling the third dish. (They do have a regular means of accessing the top of the dresser - climbing up the reserve wire brackets left over from edging the last garden or up the staff of the sledge hammer).

As I said, two of the "kids" get along fine, each allowing the other to be filling his/her cheeks to the maximum with seeds from a nearby dish at the same time - BUT there is a third chipmunk that is constantly chased off the dresser by either one of the two dominant (and cooperative) ones. It's no wonder he has the slightest build.

When the two larger chipmunks are done, down they come, chasing each other the length of the back porch with the speed of light - and the race is on! Down over the porch, under my car (or the nearby wood pile) and into their home bases where they must just dump the seeds because in only a matter of minutes they're back to gather more seeds until the dishes are empty. Emptying the dishes must be done before the gray squirrels show up - street marauders that they are and messy, too - to bully their way through the entire booty if they can.

This has been the normal process until yesterday afternoon when I was sitting on the bench near the dresser watching "the show". I still had seeds in the plastic cup which was next to me. The little chipmunk got chased off the dresser twice and had decided to settle for the little, round, yellow seeds that had been spilled off the bird feeder.

Feeling a bit sorry for the little guy I took a few of the sunflower seeds from the cup and put them on the floor in front of my foot and I leaned down with an opened, cupped hand filled with more seeds. Then I sat quietly to see what would happen. The little guy slowly approached and began to gather the seeds on the floor. There weren't enough to fill his cheeks so he stopped and looked at my cupped hand. Carefully and slowly he approached my hand. He looked at the cupped hand. He looked at the seeds. He moved toward my hand. I didn't move an inch.

Over the next half hour we indulged in a symbiotic relationship. I fed him via my cupped hand and he, placing his two front feet even into my hand, ate and ate and ate over a cup of seeds. Each time his cheeks became full he took off like a racer only to be back - even to the point of standing on his hind two legs and looking up for me to "get with the program."

I even got to put seeds on my pant leg and he climbed up onto my thigh to gather them. Once even up to my chest to look to see if I had forgotten or failed to notice his return. In truth, I felt a bit like Snow White in the Disney cartoon movie. Several times as I would drop the remaining seeds onto the floor from my cupped hand, he would even let my stroke his back three of four times before scampering away. Silky is the feel of their fur should you wonder. And their feet have five toes - spread out just like our hands with an inner toe that functions somewhat like our thumb. The touch of his feet was so delicate on my skin - barely a tickle, and his mouth as he gathered the seeds from my hand was barely discernible - no feeling of teeth.

He was back today doing the same thing. I'm not sure which one of us has been "trained" but I do know I bought a larger bag of seeds this morning.