Juli Lawrence – Rakish Gardening

August 11th, 2008

Good grief, life without dogs is a real challenge. I had no idea. And I certainly had no idea suburban living included so many critters. When I lived in the country and on the edge of the Shawnee National Forest, the critters we saw included snakes, an occasional deer quickly chased off by the dogs, turtles and big frogs when we had some ponds, and one mole that lost its life and became a rolling toy for the dogs. And one deer carcass with head and antlers attached, apparently stolen from hunters by my golden retriever. That was horrible.

And that’s pretty much it, because as it turns out, dogs chase these other things away. Or the critters smell the dogs and know they’d better not bother with a visit.

So now I have the squirrel that I’m trying to coexist with, but he throws things at my head. Sticks, twigs, nuts..whatever he has. I just yell at him and he throws more stuff at me.

But we just relocated a groundhog to a nature preserve. A couple of days ago, the ground outside next to some bushes and under the front deck was completely dug up. It looked like someone tilled it. Today we had a friend set a humane trap, and within minutes, the animal was in there. A cute groundhog.

The friend returned and took him to a hopefully happier place with butterflies and wildflowers and a little tree on a hill. I’m very sad, because I fell in love with this groundhog. He was just adorable, even though he kind of looked like a super giant rat with rat teeth. I took some pictures of him in his cage, but they weren’t very good. He looked like any other groundhog I guess. Just kind of nervous, but he seemed to know I wasn’t going to hurt him.

I still feel very sorry for him. I really do. I’m nearly in tears over this groundhog and my husband is having a grand time making fun of me. Had it been up to him, the groundhog would be dead.

Goodbye my little friend, may your journey into your new home be healthy and happy.

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Tags: pests
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