Tales from the Bark Side

By Keith Ross | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, November 3, 2007

Welcome back to the bark side of life here in Ottertail where the warm days still cling to us like a small child to its mother's arms, the hint of winter still a rumor that hasn't yet come to fruition.

There are so many things to be done before the wailing winds descend upon us with white vengeance.

This week I have a tale of my own that speaks of what can happen on a cold blustery day.

Back in the winter of 2003, my wife, Cindy, and I had to go to Frazee and Perham and then back home. The day was bitterly cold and the fell winds of winter pelted us with sleet. I went out to the truck to warm it up (no remote to start the truck up in those days) and I pulled the Dodge around to the front of the house so she could scurry into it without being out in the cold too long.

I waited about 10 minutes and sure enough, she hustled to the truck and jumped in. Since we were going to Frazee, I decided to take the back roads and catch Highway 10 just west of County Road 80 where it leads into Perham.

When we got to Frazee, I stopped by Anderson Bus Lines (they do the school buses for Vergas/Frazee School District) to see Tim and I left the truck running. Cindy stayed in the truck. I was in there about five minutes. We were off to Frazee Elementary School where Cindy teaches early childhood classes. This time I waited in the truck for her.

Finally, she came out and jumped back in the truck and we were off to Perham. The wind was howling like a forlorn wolf and the sleet was flying (like Forrest Gump's rain) sideways.

The next stop on the sojourn was Lakeland Veterinary Clinic. We pulled up to the clinic and we both got out.

Dr. Rose wasn't in at the time and we were making an impromptu visit to pick up some meds for our kennels and we returned to the truck within minutes of parking it. Poking his head out from the grill of the Dodge was a chipmunk (I'll call him Chip). We stood there looking at each other; each of us wondering what was going on.

It seems good ol’ Chip was fond of climbing up out of the cold and up into the engine compartment for his winter lodging.

“Wait a second,” I thought to myself. Aren't these critters supposed to be hibernating in the wood shed like they normally do?”

He continued to look up at us with wonder in his eyes, maybe it was confusion.

“Where am I and how the heck did I get here” was written all over his little chipmunk face.

I'm not a cruel person nor am I a tree hugging PETA extremist, but I had a bit of a dilemma. I thought of Chip's family back at Rosswood and how they would miss him. Then maybe he was a bachelor and was in the habit of hitching rides to whereever the vehicle took him.

Before any of these thoughts were allowed to see the break of day, little ole Chip made a mad dash to the nearby shrubbery and disappeared from our sight. That left my pondering academic, for the time being.

Another thought came to mind: Were there more chipmunks hiding underneath the truck. Had I just committed a Minnesotan version of “The Grapes of Wrath?” A whole family packed up and transported from one area to another?

We left Chip peeking out from behind a bush and we went on our merry way to complete our shopping and other errands which needed tending.

I hoped that Chip made it through the winter, I meant to ask Dr. Rose if he had seen any suspicious looking chipmunks lurking in his bushes but I thought better of it.

One word of caution that I learned that day is: Check your vehicles regularly in the winter for you don't know who or what may be camping in there.

One chipmunk chewed through the cruise control cable of my wife's previous car and some electrical damage was done as well.

They may be cute as a bug's ear (always wondered about that comparison) but they can be very destructive.

Keith Alan Ross writes from his home in New York Mills.