One of these days, if I get a camcorder, I will win America's Funniest Home Videos


So, in my townhouse, I have this great patio door that opens out into the huge backyard. It's a great window, and I have a ton of wildlife - birds galore, squirrels, even a deer or two that visit once in a while. There is also a family of busybody chipmunks who have claimed my little back cement slab as their home.

They are quite bold and brazen and provide many hours of enjoyment, I must say.

Anyway, this weekend was one of those glorious fall weekends. It is sunny and the sky is sapphire blue. It is warm but there's just enough of a breeze so you aren't hot. The leaves are at their peak colors and, really, everything is right wth the world. I opened the glass door on the patio, so the breeze could come in the house while I read on the couch. All of a sudden, Leo goes streaking through the living room toward the screen door and I think "Oh great, here we go again."

Now, I love Leo dearly, but he is most definitely a special needs child. Not much brain to speak of. He has been known - on more than one occassion - to get too excited by a squirrel or a humingbird and brain himself on a window going after it. Well, in this case, he was heading toward the screen as he had seen the sassy chipmunks out there doing their little chipmunk taunting dance of the fall nuts. No danger of injury to poor kitty brain but it was going to be a mess.

Well, one of the chipmunks heard his little bell coming, turned toward the door, puffed up, and emited the most evil hissing growl I have ever heard, and started hopping toward the screen door. Leo put on the breaks, skidded, did a somersault, and reversed his trajectory so fast, I think he broke the time-space barrier. He went screaming - and I mean literally screaming and howling and yowling up the stairs and hid under the bed, where he refused to come out for about an hour.

The little chipmunk just did a little shake of his fur and went back to eating as if nothing had happened.