They Come, But They Don't Like To Stay

Update: John has informed me that he did not drop the groundhog, he just put it down very qiuckly.

Early Sunday afternoon, the pups and I went outside to play. Duncan immediately went to the back left corner near the rose bushes and started checking the fence. He was so interested and focused that I started looking at the fence. The first thing I saw was a couple of areas along the back that I thought were mole holes into the yard. On closer inspection, I realized they were holes dug by something trying to get out of the yard, but with no success. By this point, Duncan was nosing around one of the rose bushes, so I went to see what was so interesting. I saw a grey fluffy body beneath the bush, and my first thought was “Oh, crap! The neighbor’s cat is in the yard!” Then I realized the tail was all wrong for a cat. And then I realized I had a groundhog stuck in the fence.


By this point, Reyna realized Duncan and I were looking at something, so she came over to check it out. Thinking the groundhog was just wedged under the fence, I tried moving the bottom edge of the fence a bit to see if that would help, but it didn’t. That’s when I figured out that the poor thing had tried to go out through one of the openings in the fence, rather than underneath. Checking the area, I could tell that his intended exit point was where he’d originally come into the yard. There was a hole dug there, with the dirt on the outside of the fence.


I got the dogs inside, since they were bugging the groundhog (plus, I was afraid if it got loose it would do some serious damage to one of them, and another vet bill really isn’t on the list of things I need these days). And then I called Trusty John. We talked about snipping the fence, but I was worried about hurting the groundhog worse trying to get snips between its neck and the fence. So John said he’d come on over and help. I went back outside to see how it was doing, and found that he’d flipped over onto his back.



John came over, and Operation Groundhog Rescue commenced. John didn’t want me taking pictures of him, so there aren’t any of the rescue. He managed to slide the groundhog’s chubby cheeks back inside the fence, and its head slipped free. And that’s when John got curious. As he was looking at the groundhog, it started struggling and bit him (John was wearing gloves, so no damage was done). When he dropped it, the poor thing was still on the wrong side of the fence and clearly confused about how to get out. He finally got back to the rose bush and crawled under the fence (its original plan, I’m sure). That little groundhog probably broke the current groundhog speed record, running away as fast as it could. With luck, it’ll tell all its little friends to avoid the yard.

Duncan was devastated to realize his new buddy was gone. I’m sure he would have hugged it and squeezed it and called it George. But Reyna probably would have tried to eat it. Since then, every time we go outside Duncan runs to the corner to see if his friend has come back. And Reyna has decided that if Duncan is looking at something at or near the fence, she has to go look, too. Because you never know, something interesting might be there.