For a number of years we've had chipmunks on our property. I'll be damned if I can tell whether they're male or female (I really do wish the buck chipmunks had antlers or some tell-tale marking), so we've gotten into the habit of naming all of 'our' chipmunks 'Chippy'. This, I should mention, is not an original idea. Everyone calls their chipmunks Chippy. No one has ever nicknamed a chipmunk Andrea, Robert or Colleen. It's Chippy or nuthin'.
What about Chipweena, Ian?
Oh, yes, it is true that one year we named one of the Chipmunks Chipweena, sensing that it might have been a girl chipmunk. What's really interesting about chipmunks is not whether they're male or female, and it's not that we hand feed them either, rather it's Wendy approach to befriending rodents. Chippy is a rodent, after all, and Wendy hates mice. One day I asked Wendy why she loved chipmunks and hated mice...
Ian: Wendy, why do you hate mice, yet adore chipmunks?
Wendy: If I can see me wearing them as slippers, then I like them.
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