Groundhog Days

There is a groundhog in my backyard and it's terrorizing my dog. This morning my wife saw the chubby little rat nibbling on my dog's chew toys.

Ivy, the golden doodle, did meet the groundhog the other day. I was sitting in the backroom playing piano, when a motion in the backyard caught my eye. I looked over and there the little varmint was, sauntering around like he owned the place. I picked up Ivy and faced her out the window until she saw the visitor. Then I opened the door and Ivy raced after him. She pinned him in the corner of our fenced in yard and held him there. She pawed at him, as if her were a little ball. My six-year old son, Joey, and I ran outside to watch. The tiny animal looked so scared, and I pulled the dog away, before her toy became her meal. The groundhog stared back at us and made a chattering noise with his teeth. He was not very scary at all. Joey and I laughed at him. But we had to get him out of the yard, and he was too scared to remember where he'd come in from. I put Ivy back in the house, opened up a section of the fence, and Joey and I grabbed some baseball bats. We chased the groundhog towards the opening. The stupid animal hid between a tree and the fence, and we had to scare him out of his shelter. He finally found the opening in the fence and scurried away, into the neighbor's yard. Me and my son rejoiced. Joey said, "If we were out camping we would have ate him, because he looked like he was in pretty good shape." We never found the hole the groundhog had come in from, and we thought he was gone for good.

But this morning the groundhog is back. And the next time Ivy encounters him, she might not be so friendly. My son joked about eating the varmint, but if Ivy really attacks, Joey might not be so happy to witness the mess.

Groundhogs are such funny little pests. They look so fleshy and out of shape. Such a little character, strutting through the yard one moment, and then running away just as scared as can be. I have a feeling we'll meet again soon.