We had planted our vegetable garden in the early spring of 2013, and it was growing and producing nicely.
I started to notice leaves and beans missing, as if someone was picking them or something was eating them.
Early one morning, I saw a groundhog, and later that evening, I saw him again. Now I know where my vegetables were going, down the mouth of that groundhog.
Hubby and I both knew that groundhog had to go!
Early one morning, I saw a groundhog, and later that evening, I saw him again. Now I know where my vegetables were going, down the mouth of that groundhog.
Hubby and I both knew that groundhog had to go!
Hubby went to the gun shop near our home to buy a pellet gun in hopes of frightening or even killing the groundhog.
After sitting and waiting every evening to kill the groundhog, he decided to borrow a cage.
Days went by, but no groundhog.
It has been almost a month since we last captured the groundhog; he is too smart for us.
I decided to put some onions and carrots inside the cage.
The next morning (May 10, 2013, Friday), I peeked out the window to see if we had captured the groundhog. I couldn't see clearly because it was foggy due to the rain that had fallen the night before.
To my amazement, there was an animal inside the cage.
I called Hubby on my cell phone and said, "We have got him!" We've got what? The groundhog, I said.
Later that day, after the fog had cleared, I decided to go visit the animal.
The first time I saw him, he was curled up in a ball, so I could not see his face.
Later that day, I went back to the cage. I wanted to take pictures of him,
I frightened him because he hissed at me.
He had a long tail and a pointed nose and was covered with fur.
I thought to myself, he doesn't look like a groundhog.
I emailed the picture to Hubby, and he said that it was not a groundhog but an opossum. Hubby said opossums are not a danger to our garden.
That night, when he got home, he opened the cage door to let the opossum out.
The next day, the opossum was still sitting inside the cage with the door open.
That evening, when Hubby came home, he went to the cage to see why the opossum was still sitting inside the cage.
The opossum's tail was caught in the latch of the door, and he could not get free.
Believe it or not, Hubby reached inside and untangled the opossum's tail. The opossum just sat there, for he did not realize he was free to leave the cage.
When he realized his tail was no longer caught, he scurried away.
We never saw the opossum again.
We did see the groundhog now and again, for he had moved his burrow to the field behind our house. The field behind our house is covered in clover, which the groundhog feasts on every day.
Not to say the groundhog did not occasionally visit our garden.
Hubby never tried again to kill the groundhog.
On May 1, 2014, Hubby was looking out the window, and guess what he saw? Another Groundhog.
We just planted our garden, and he is scouting it out for future food!!!!!!!
The groundhog Hubby saw may have been the same one from last year or one of his offspring.
We attract groundhogs, as evidenced by the fact that the first year we planted a garden, in May 2005, we had a groundhog encounter.
2005 was the year that Hubby borrowed a shotgun and was going to shoot the groundhog. The groundhog was cute, but working in the garden is hard work.
Hubby would sit by the window every afternoon, waiting for the groundhog to appear. Every time Hubby shot at the groundhog, he would miss.
So after many tries to kill the groundhog, to no avail, Hubby was ready to give up.
But to our dismay, on that day, as we were leaving the house, we saw the groundhog lying on the road. The irony of the story was that the groundhog was too fast for a shotgun but too slow for a fast-moving car.
