Another sultry summer day. Yet instead of lounging on a breezy beach in my bikini (ha!), I was at my desk all day. Our office is not air-conditioned, so our only cooling comes from personal fans at our desks and an open front door if there's a slight breeze. This morning something caught my eye out my office door, and I turned to spy a chipmunk making its way over the threshold. Alert to every movement, it almost ran out when I turned, but then decided I was apparently harmless and came further inside.

We had to deal with getting a squirrel out of the office basement this spring, and I've witnessed firsthand the chaos that ensues when a cat brings a live chipmunk into the house. So I shooed it out for the first of what became many times today.

This afternoon someone arrived for a meeting as the chipmunk was attempting another foray inside. I pointed it out, and she described how her husband was trapping chipmunks in their barn, where the little guys were stuffing their cheeks with the food they put out for their barn cat. Instead of chasing the rodents, the cat seemed intimidated by them. Her husband sprayed each chipmunk with green paint before releasing it a few miles away. He has now caught 21 chipmunks with no repeats!

I'm not sure what the attraction of our office was for this chipmunk. Maybe it smelled the bag of birdseed I keep just inside the door, or maybe it liked the feeling of the cool linoleum on its feet. Or maybe it was interested in land conservation. In any case, our cute, perky little visitor was a diversion on a busy day.

Hot day. Open door
tempts a chipmunk to visit.
The outside comes in.