This short little book was written by the actress Elizabeth Taylor, apparently when she was still young- had just finished performing in “National Velvet” and was working on production of some Lassie film when she wrote it. It’s about her pet chipmunk. She had many. Lots of other pets, too- dogs, cats, horses, guinea pigs, etc- only a few of the dogs and two horses really get any other mention, because the book is all about her chipmunk. Someone told her that all these chipmunks freeze to death in the winter (don’t they have burrows they stay in?) so she felt no qualms about catching some to keep as pets. No real description of how she caught them, though. Live traps, I assume. The chipmunks became tame very quickly, she had a lot of them in a group cage for a while but then let most go free and kept one she felt particularly attached to, called Nibbles. The chipmunk went everywhere with her. To the movie production studio. Travels on the train. Visits to her uncle’s house. She had a little traveling cage made for it, but most of the time it sat on her shoulder or in her pocket, the leash around its neck attached to a ring on her finger. When she did let it run around free though, there was often trouble. Quite a few chapters are all about the alarming narrow escapes her chipmunk had when it crawled into pipes, or dashed out onto a hotel fire escape. Near the end of the book she finally wonders if her chipmunk would rather live free, and decides to offer it a choice . . . .
Very endearing and cute. Especially the little drawings, done by the author herself. I particularly liked the two of her cocker spaniel with the chipmunk. There is also a bit about her life as a young actress starting to become famous- little glimpses of what it was like being on stage. It sounds like she was surrounded by loving family and supported and admired by everyone she worked with. Charming.
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Interesting, I never thought about chipmunks as pets (I’ve thought about nearly every other wild animal I think). I wonder how true it is that they became tame very quickly? And if so, why? I’d think bringing a wild squirrel inside would mean lots of destruction, wonder how chipmunks differ?
It did chew holes in clothes and other fabrics when not attended to carefully enough! Probably there was more difficulty in keeping it than she admitted- or just overlooked because the animal was so cute and she loved it.