A Chipmunk Ate My Car: Gas Gauge Stuck on Empty

Late last week my gas gauge suddenly stopped working. Though I knew I had more than a half a tank of gas, the gauge said the tank was empty. With yesterday's nice weather, I went out to the garage to have a look, took the back seat out, then removed the access panel to look at the fuel pump I'd been working near to last week (different problem). I thought, probably I'd touched a loose wire, causing today's problem with the gauge. But a volt-ohm meter told me everything with the gas level sensor seemed fine-- except the voltage coming to it was about half of what it should be. Then I remembered my car had two separate fuel level sensors (because the tank straddles the drive train like a saddle, in a sense making it into two tanks), one behind the driver, the other behind the passenger. While I didn't at all think the problem could be the right-side fuel level sensor, purely for the sake of thoroughness I decided to have a look. As soon as I removed the passenger-side access panel, I saw a potential problem. Of all the places in my garage, of all the places, of all the many huge trees in my yard, of all the bazillion places in the neighborhood this chipmunk could have chosen to build a cozy nest to overwinter and raise a brood, it chose the spot on top of that fuel sensor. Moreover, after I cleared that nest out, all the fuzz and leaves and tiny scraps of newspaper and leaves and pieces of munched up acorns, I found that this chipmunk, in the process of rehabbing this location for its nest, had chewed completely through one wire and nibbled quite a bit of insulation off a second wire. Two or three other wires were left untouched, but decimating just the one wire was enough to make my gas gauge erroneously read Empty. As soon as I twisted together the chewed-through wire, my gas gauge worked again. I did the much more permanent fix and put my car back together again. I love nature, even the pesky squirrels and chipmunks who constantly amaze me with the damage they cause. (This was by no means they've vexed me with their mischievous damage.) But after spending about six hours yesterday on a problem I shouldn't' have had, I'm seeing the benefit of keeping nature at a farther distance.