Thursday, June 11, 2009

Suburban Wildlife

We have a groundhog, who we dubbed "Gordy," who lives near us. Occasionally I see him in our right-hand neighbor's yard, once or twice I've seen him burrowing under our front porch, but mostly I see him under our left-hand neighbors, the Feint's, back porch. That seems to be his favorite hang-out spot.

Last week, though, Gordy had me worried. Craig and I were sitting at our dining room table eating when we saw him coming out of his favorite home. He began climbing up the stairs to the Feint's porch, only to slip and fall down, rolling back onto his back! This was a little alarming, but when he proceeded to do it again, and then finally gave up and retreated to underneath the porch, I got really worried. What could possibly be wrong with Gordy? Was he dying? Should I mention this to our neighbors? (I have to admit-- having a dead groundhog under your porch would be really gross.)

What with being gone over the weekend and things being busy since I got back, I hadn't spotted our fat little friend in a while, so I continued to be a bit concerned about him.

Until this morning. I was just finishing my breakfast when I noticed movement under the stairs. As I kept watching, hopeful that Gordy had finally recovered from whatever was ailing him, I got something of a surprise: a very small groundhog finally made her shy entry into the outside world! She's about half the size of the groundhog I usually see (about the size of a squirrel, rather then the size of a very large cat as Gordy is), so this is clearly a baby groundhog!!!

So now I understand what's been going on. Gordy-- who is hereby renamed Girtie-- was clearly up all night nursing last week, which reduced her to stumbling around drunkenly. Poor thing! She has my sympathy. But what a cute little baby!

P.S. I just managed to snap a picture of the two of them-- check it out!

7 comments:

Jen Evans said...

Or maybe "Gordy" can't handle the stress of a new baby and is coming home a little drunky drunky. Poor Gertie.

Erin said...

Groundhogs are well and fine until you want a garden. Once they eat all your lettuce you'll just want them dead.

Oneup said...

We had a groundhog under our back porch when I was little. My mother knew my dad would want it gone, evidently they can be less-than-good for back porches. But, much to his dismay, it was already named Charlie by the time he got home from work the first day Charlie moved it. That meant he couldn't just kill it, he had to be humane. Charlie dazzled us with perfect mothball pyramids sevearl times before my father gave up. There is now a very fat chipmunk living in Charlie's old house. He empties the bird feeders for my parents on a regular basis.

Joe said...

We've got a raccoon that's living our of the neighbor's garbage can. For some 50 pound, four-legged reason, it's avoiding our porch, though. Which is good.

Tracy said...

Very cute groundhogs. Women definitely get the short end of the stick!

Anne said...

:) That's hilarious. You crack me up.

Rachael said...

I'm glad you had the courtesy to rename "Gordy", and that picture is adorable!! Good photography. :)