curled in a tight ball
furry tail curved over its face
a chipmunk fails to stay
warm enough on a cold night
trapped above ground
To my dismay, we failed to check the "humane" live trap until the morning after a cold fall night.
The little chipmunk is curled in a ball in a corner, between the trip plate and the end of the wire cage. Usually, I carry the live chipmunks in the live trap a couple of miles away to release them.
This one looks like it's sleeping. But when I touch the cage, it doesn't move. A dead chipmunk in a live trap.
Perhaps freezing to death is not the worst way to go, returning in fetal position to the way it was before it was born. But when I remove the tiny lightweight body from the trap, still curled up tight, I feel such despair that our lack of timely surveillance caused the chipmunk's untimely death. No more trapping chipmunks while the nights are cold.
