June ends with this

We’re getting ready to enter the month of July and I have deemed myself the Groundhog Whisperer. In the past two weeks I have caught eight groundhogs and taken them to other areas. Wild areas. Areas I worry are being inundated with groundhogs. Tomorrow, I work on sealing the areas of the deck they use to access their tunnels feeling confident that I have moved or scared any others off. The last groundhog was the only one that seemed peeved, I received a number of clicking warnings. But nothing frantic. (This one was caught after ten minutes of having put the trap out, they love peanuts too much!)

During the groundhog roundup my neighbor also had a trap out, but he forgot to close it overnight and the next morning when I looked out, I could see two young raccoons looking very Chaplinesque. It was early (and I couldn’t wait for my neighbor to get up) and a day that would be hot, so I had Jerry help and we took the trap with the two convicts, spitting and growling, to the side of the house toward the ravine. I think the two raccoons had made a pack to attack me when I opened the cage but only one jumped toward me and when he saw his buddy running, he took out after him growling and biting – of course I was already headed the other way!

Mary 8 Groundhogs 0, sorry flat cats. Raccoons a draw.

Here’s a weak hand poem from the other morning.

Whatever alchemy life throws into us
like late day sun, a gold that welds memory
to the world: The sunflower near blush
as it opens its face to the light for the first
time or that moment we woke to your silence
and found you, head up in your crib, a bubble
on your tongue and a smile better than any bright
star welcoming us.