Clandestine groundhog transport

The past few days my Facebook “memories” have been full of Ursula and Zora. It was just two years ago that they came into our home. (And now almost a year since they both left. Sickness is a cruel string for cats, you can only do what you guess is right and second guess yourself, even now.) As the memories of U & Z went dim (They. Never. Go. Dim.) I began following the coming and goings of the groundhogs. Or the flat cats as I called them. Otto and Olive last year and then Olive had four kits this spring; and I have been watching them grow and explore -- until they started going into our neighbor’s garage and chewing on his car (wires) and climbing shelves – so we (neighbors, Jerry, and me) hatched a plan to 1) run them off or 2) move them.

We have found that the Internet is full of ideas about how to make a groundhog leave. After trying three of these ideas, I really think that the groundhogs have hacked the Internet and are posting these ideas as another “gotcha, you silly human”. So, we moved on to humane traps; placed in a great location and loaded with peanuts (groundhog Kryptonite) the whole family was caught and relocated within 48 hours.

The weather was quite warm, so I was very careful to check the traps often and then quickly load and transport to an out of the town wooded area. Three of the kits were trapped within six hours, which meant every time the trap closed, I had to get them quickly to their new location. I was surprised at how calm they seemed, though I’m sure their poor little hearts were beating like mad, all the more reason to get them quickly to a wild area.

The only glitch was after catching the fourth kit after I reloaded the traps with peanuts I caught a Blue Jay (as they also love peanuts). I knew something was up when I heard the racket from out back; luckily the Blue Jay didn’t panic (too) much and quickly left when I opened the door. (I will be offering a peanut tribute to these birds soon).


(Today's weak hand poem)
The small brown body
pushes against the cage.
Looks at me, not in fear
but understanding:” Who
will release you, human?”