Two Down - March 27, 2022

 

The Husband spotted Groundhog Deux multiple times this past week and made a plan to catch him come the weekend.  Friday night, he saved the carrot, pepper, and zucchini nubs and peels from dinner, and yesterday morning he baited the trap with them.  I checked the trap mid-morning.  Nothing.

Later that afternoon, I rummaged around in the kitchen for something to eat and decided on a banana.  Remembering that we'd caught the other groundhog with a rotten banana, I pinched off pieces of my banana and smashed them through the holes of the live trap.  About an hour later, as I was painting on the back porch, I heard the trap slam shut.  Sure enough, there was a big fat groundhog in the trap.  

By this time, The Husband was on the tractor, helping his cousin clean up limb debris from the recent ice storm.  As I painted on the porch, I could hear the cage rattle.  A couple of hours later, when it appeared that The Husband would likely be busy until dark, I considered it my wifely duty to haul the groundhog off, myself.  I planned to take him to the lake, where he might re-unite with his friend, George.  

The Husband had set it a couple of feet from the edge of the gully.  When I got up to begin the relocation process, the cage was teetering on the very edge.  The groundhog had rammed the door so hard, so often that he had moved the cage forward a couple of feet.  But for a rock that impeded his progress, the cage would have tumbled down the gully, groundhog and all.  And he was in there, still just a-ramming.  

I thought it wise to move the cage away from the ledge until I got ready to load it in the truck so I wouldn't have to tramp down into the gully to retrieve it.  When the groundhog heard me coming, he whirled around to face me.  I reached down to pick up the cage, and he crouched and started clacking his teeth at me.  I thought, A'int no way I'm letting this murff out of the cage by myself.  But I didn't want to leave it where it was.  Using a long stick, I scooted the cage back from the ledge.  Scared the crap out of the groundhog and me, both.  

As evening approached, I checked the cage again.  It was back on the edge of the gully.  I decided that it could roll down the hill, for all I cared; the groundhog could just spend the night in the trap instead of catching up with George.

It was dark by the time The Husband finished tractoring.  I told him about the groundhog, first thing.  He decided to haul it off right then.  He and his cousin took the groundhog for a ride to the river bottom.

When he got back, he told me that he'd seen another one up the road earlier in the afternoon.  

Wonder if it was George?