Cat vs. chipmunk

imsmooth

My cat in a showdown with a chipmunk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CKdXRJg72s

Danger

Cool. Lucy isn't allowed outdoors. If she were, in the situation that your cat was in, she would have brought the squirrel home, housebroken it, shared her food with it, and taught it how to sleep with me without biting. (The latter being something that I wish my wife had learned.)

*Proton Soup*

that induction heater is nice, too

turbo

Cute "stand-off". My dog is quite tolerant of them. He doesn't bark or act aggressive, and the 'munks that I hand-trained previously are torn. Do they approach and hope I give them seeds, or do they avoid the "bad" dog? It results in stare-downs like this, though Duke is just curious, not motivated to harm them.

Danger

The problem, Turbo, is that animals lack the rationality to overcome instinct. A dog's instinct has been purpose-bred for thousands of years, to please and obey its master. That's merely a modification of its original pack mentality. The squirrel, who is a link lower on the food chain (and has a brain the size of a pecan), doesn't know that the carnivorous dog has been bred to not eat it. Very long exposure is required for something that humans would interpret as "trust" to develop. "Trust" is a human concept, though. I'm no biologist or animal behaviourist, but my thought is that an animal's "trust" response is based solely upon an experiential lack of threats under certain circumstances.
That is assuming that the animals meet as adults or adolescents. Mutually hostile species, if raised together from birth, adopt the more basic instinct of imprinting upon each other as siblings. (I wouldn't expect it to work for a snake and a mongoose, but it seems to be pretty effective for all-mammal systems. I've seen rats being treated as kittens by cats. That was really cool, because those are my two favourite animals.)
By the bye, I just noticed that I've been referencing squirrels although the OP is about a chipmunk. That's a bit embarrassing, but it doesn't alter the things that I've said since they apply to any small fur-bearing animals.

imsmooth	Cat vs. chipmunk Tweet My cat in a showdown with a chipmunk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CKdXRJg72s

Danger Recognitions: Gold Member	Cool. Lucy isn't allowed outdoors. If she were, in the situation that your cat was in, she would have brought the squirrel home, housebroken it, shared her food with it, and taught it how to sleep with me without biting. (The latter being something that I wish my wife had learned.)

Proton Soup Blog Entries: 3	that induction heater is nice, too

turbo Recognitions: Gold Member	Cat vs. chipmunk Cute "stand-off". My dog is quite tolerant of them. He doesn't bark or act aggressive, and the 'munks that I hand-trained previously are torn. Do they approach and hope I give them seeds, or do they avoid the "bad" dog? It results in stare-downs like this, though Duke is just curious, not motivated to harm them.