A couple months ago, I saw a woodchuck (groundhog) sitting out on my back porch. I hadn't seen him since, and the cats haven't been spending an inordinate amount of time on the windowsill staring into the back yard, so I haven't had woodchucks on the mind lately.
The last couple days, though, it's been cool enough to leave the back door open, with the screen door latched to keep in the cats who, having viewed the world through glass for months, were happy to view the back yard through the screen. I started to get suspicious when they skipped their naps to hang out by the back door, and got more suspicious when a squirrel started hollering. I joined my cats at the back door and saw said hollering squirrel on the fence and the woodchuck, a little bigger than he was at his last appearance, hanging out in the herbless herb bed.
I talked to the woodchuck, not too loudly that the neighbors might hear, and stayed inside. The woodchuck came over to the porch, looked at me for a little while (smiling), and ducked underneath the porch.
Now whenever I walk into the kitchen, I check out back for the woodchuck (his name is Buddy) and often he's right out there, keeping an eye on things in my house and going under the porch when he sees me.
Oz has expressed some concerns. "If he lives under the porch, where do you think he goes to the bathroom? And shouldn't his name be 'Charles'?"
But I think that the yard is big enough for us and Buddy too.
272 words | October 5, 2005 07:49 PM | Felis Major