I didn't hear about the hitchhiking chipmunk, but during a recent wait in the vet's waiting room I read a story about a hitchhiking cat. A trucker on an interstate traveling over 70mph was flagged down by a passing motorist yelling "Cat! Cat!" repeatedly. Finally, the guy pulled over at the nearest exit only to discover that a cat was riding on a 6-in wide beam that ran underneath the length of the bed of his truck. The trucker said his last stop was over 400 miles ago, so the poor cat had been riding there for a very long time. It was covered with oil and was taken to the nearest humane society where it was cleaned up and cared for. It made the national news (maybe you all heard about it) and the H.S. received 100s of calls from people claiming the cat was theirs. The H.S. gave the cat its 10 day waiting period then put it up for adoption. The first day it was up for adoption, there was quite a line of people waiting outside the shelter when they opened their doors. An elderly woman arrived at the shelter at 6 a.m. and sat in her lawn chair and waited. She's the one who got to take the cat home with her. A happy ending for the poor little guy, but oh what an ordeal to have gone through. How in the world did he hold on?!
