Sunday, August 9, 2009

Mr. Woodchuck Pays A Visit

A couple of minutes ago, our dog raised one heck of a ruckus outside. I can describe her bark by saying it sounded like, "It's a squirrel, but bigger! MUCH bigger!”



Although Zoey was very unhappy about it, we got her inside while Roy and I went outside to investigate.





This little guy was unhappily trying to make himself invisible under a piece of equipment in a little lean-to attached to the side of the house.



Roy got behind him and tried to coax him to travel on to safer pastures, but he was not eager to step out into the sunshine and leave.





We think he was just a teenager, probably from this year's litter. He seemed to be hesitant to step off the slab of the lean-to. (Probably because of the large lady holding the camera directly in front of him.)



Eventually he did take a hard right and disappear under our deck. The deck is surrounded by flower beds and shrubbery and our dog has been trained not to go under there so I think Mr. Woodchuck will be safe until he sees his way clear to leaving us humans . . . and that barky dog . . . behind.



5 comments:

MaineCelt said...

Woodchuck... oh NOOOOOoooooooo!!! Haven't your gardens had enough trauma this season?!? I would relocate that indecisive little guy to the next county, given the chance.

Mama Pea said...

MaineCelt - We've had one (or two or more?) of these guys living in a big rock pile down a shallow ravine on our property for several years and today was the first time we've ever seen one inside the fenced in yard/garden area. We're giving him the benefit of the doubt, hoping he'll skeedaddle out the way he came in and not do any damage. But we gave him a stern warning and ample notice today that we're watching him so he'd better play by the rules . . . or else.

RuthieJ said...

I think that groundhog's kinda cute.

Mama Pea said...

Ruthie - We've seen neither hide nor hair of our little woodchuck since he made the mad dash under the deck. If he stays out of the fenced in garden/yard area, all will be well. If not, I'm UPSing him to you.

Chicken Mama said...

I forgot to write on our blog that, in probably June, it was - I was doing chores one morning with the dogs as my usual helpers / companions.

The dogs walked to the top of the path to the chicken yard with me, and I proceeded down it. They went on to do something else. I was only gone the normal amount of time it takes to do morning chores.

BUT, when I reached the top of the path, Tucker was eviscerating a fairly good-sized mama groundhog! (I was sad that she'd been a mama.) Where'd he found her so quickly?!

And, MaineCelt, you must have a different "variety" of groundhog / woodchuck (groundchuck / woodhog??) over there: I've never heard of anyone disliking them around here. But, maybe it's because we have so few of them? Generally speaking, they keep to themselves & we rarely see 'em.