farewell to chipmunk

So, this morning I was watering the plants on my front porch (with grey water, no less) and I noticed our neighbor's cat, Ciara, chilling out in my yard. Since I'm pretty confident in my cat-reading skills, I knew she was stalking something...I just didn't know WHAT until it leapt up in the air and fell back to the ground. Being such an immature animal lover, I realized it was a chipmunk and immediately ran back inside to get my camera - I had to get the picture for my new blog, duh. Anyways, I come back out and they're still in the same cat/chipmunk position so I snap away. After a couple of minutes I thought - "Am I just going to observe this cute, rarely-seen critter get mauled by this neighborhood cat or am I going to do what I've done since I was a kid and try to rescue it?" The answer was obvious. I put the camera down and hurried down my front steps to rescue the chipmunk (FYI - I'm already ready for work, so in work clothes and heels). Needless to say, Ciara was pissed! I tried to shoo her away but she was hell-bent on playing with that chipmunk. I finally got close enough to scoop up the chipmunk, but since I was being so careful (didn't want to get bitten) it was able to wiggle its way out of my hand. As soon as it hopped back to the ground, Ciara ran over and picked that thing up by the nape of its neck and carried it to my neighbor's yard and out of my reach. I was heartbroken. By the time Jarrod and I left for work, it was clear that Ciara was still trying to play with it, even though it was probably dead. I decided to post my pictures of this brave lil' chipmunk to pay tribute...RIP.