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| View from the back porch |
My friend Rosie and I spent last evening sitting on the glider and sipping margaritas. Entertainment was provided by Baby Woodchuck, who scampered to and fro, hither and thither, nibbling, munching, and stuffing wads of comfrey into his mouth. (He is a pulp-grinding machine.) Occasionally I would liven things up by chasing little 'chuck under his shed, but for the most part, me and my defeatist attitude stayed on the back porch with our sorrow-drowning drink.
The title of this post is what Rosie exclaimed when she first spotted him. He has doubled in size over the past few days, by turning vegetable matter into animal fat. Just one of nature's marvels.
For the record, I deserved to take a load off last night. I don't know how many assorted vermin I've shuttled off this property and out to the State Forest over the past three months, but it's getting old. The Others keep getting caught in my woodchuck trap. We'll just call them Others because everyone is so horrified when I say Rats. Oops.
Anyway, I dressed myself like a sane person this morning, and went out to check my trap, slowly, without running, because I have matured over the past week and I am now accustomed to disappointment. Guess who? Well good morning, Baby Woodchuck - so pleased to see you.
I did not dawdle. I loaded trap and 'chuck into the 6am bus service to Somewhere Else, and off we went. Baby Woodchuck bared his teeth at me in parting. I told him not to let the trap door hit him on the way out.
For now, I'm drinking my coffee on the back porch, and it's pretty quiet. No crazy woman hollering and throwing potholders into the sunflower patch. Just me and the stray cats, who have never, not once, eaten any of my brassicas.
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| Baby Woodchuck, taken into custody sometime in the night |
8 comments:
Congratulations! I'm glad you covered his right eye with the cage bar in the picture else he would have given the entire internet the stink-eye. Such a cute little evil thing.
YAH! Victory! He does look like a walrus from that angle.
I've never seen a woodchuck before! I wonder if we even have them!! I am in a constant battle with slugs. My poor decimated clematis had all these lovely new baby leaves then bam, one night, chewed to bits. And, a certain crafty squirrel keeps digging up my native bulbs ($4 each!!) and taking them somewhere. Sigh... Good luck with your rats. Wonder why the cats don't take care of them?
Zoe..congrats on catching & releasing him in a new home. Love the blog and your ability to bring the picture to life via words.
Looking forward to more updates on the flourishing backyard.
I think this calls for a congratulatory margarita!! :D
That last pic is classic.
Thanks, everyone! LN emailed me a comment: "Maybe he got too fat to squeeze out of the trap!" which reminds me to give credit where credit is due. Matt said I should weight the ends of the defective trap with bricks. I said that was silly and it would never work, but I tried anyway. It worked! Even that hefty 'chuck could not heave the bricks off. What do you know?
Woohoo! Congratulations! My poor mother has had her own garden taken hostage by a woodchuck, but unfortunately he has yet to be taken into custody. Makes our gopher problem not seem like so much of a problem! Glad you managed to catch the little varmint...and that now your potholders can stay in the kitchen where they belong! :P
Hi Zoe, cats don't eat brassicas, but aren't they supposed to eat things like woodchucks?????? I'm glad they didn't, and like CVF above, pleased you managed to catch and rehouse it.
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