A Surprise

Yay, it's finally time! I can share the surprise.

But first a bit of background so you won't think I'm nuts. (pun intended)

Near the end of last summer, my friend, Jayne decided to take on the challenge of teaching her "resident" chipmunk to eat out of her hand. "Chippy" provided loads of entertainment, was a natural in front of the camera, and........trained quite well. By autumn, Jayne not only had him eating out of her hand, but off her shoulder as well. Photos on her blog joyfully showed her success winning over the newest member of the family.

Here at home, we had Chip and Dale (after the "Rescue Rangers" cartoon) and Shorty. We never took the time to train them to hand feeding, but enjoyed watching their antics and talked a lot of Chippy.

I decided that I would find a chipmunk "something" for Jayne for her birthday. Every store we went in I would look. In all the gift shops in Rockport there was no "Chippy".

The hunt for that perfect chipmunk gift got put aside when Jayne's husband died only three days before her birthday. And even weeks and weeks later I didn't know how she would feel about the Chippy stuff. Her husband had taken so many photos of Chippy with Jayne.

Then.....Jayne beat me to the "Chippy". She sent me a delightful stuffed animal. His name is Chip. I adore him! He watches over me as I sleep from his perch atop the tv in my bedroom.

So the challenge was on to find something for Jayne. I hunted and hunted once again but there was nothing.

Until..........................

The idea came to me.........................

All the photos that Jayne had posted on her blog. And one special one.
You see, I used to be an art teacher, so.......here they are, portraits of Chippy. I sent them to Jayne and she received them today so now I can publicly post them! Three 5X7 pencil sketches.....









"Fleeing"














"Dining on the Railing"











"The Hand that Feeds"








All sent for Jayne's "half" birthday. Hope she likes her birthday gift.