Suburban Groundhog Extraction
While raking the yard last Saturday, I saw a brown streak dart under my rhododendrons. As I approached, the critter followed its instincts and “went to ground” in my basement window-well nearby. As soon as my dog Ginger poked her nose into the ‘hog’s hiding place, all hell broke loose. We found them in a corner of our garage, with Ginger learning a hard lesson about cornered rodents, and the groundhog whistling and snarling.
We pulled Ginger away unscathed, and here’s what happened next:
I really didn’t want to hurt him, and I didn’t want to have to bother with disposing of the body if I did. He was just passing through, and is probably now living under my neighbor’s deck or shed (sorry Vince!).
He spent a few hours under my Civic, then disappeared. Later that day, as we backed the van out of the driveway, he dropped from the undercarriage. I tried to shoo him away, but he ran back under the Civic, and I watched him crawl into the engine compartment. I haven’t seen him since.
We have one living under our shed. Parker and Kenzie chased one in the yard last year for a few minutes. They are mean, they can swim, and are sometimes referred to as a land beaver.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodchuck
Also, I’ll take all those unused green metal garden stakes taking up all that space in your garage off your hands if you’d like (except for your dedicated ground hog removal tool).
Chris P
August 4, 2008 at 4:54 pm