Bigger Rodent Adventures!

We arrived home to more than one rodent adventure besides needing to say goodbye to Jellybean. Apparently, having no kids or lawnmowers around for a week, while we went up to see my Mom, was enough to convince a chubby, young groundhog to move in under our backyard shed. Since it is conveniently located next to my vegetable garden and flower beds, he also had a nearby buffet to enjoy! All of my lettuce had been neatly nipped away and many of my flowers nibbled off as well.

We actually learned of his presence as we pulled into our driveway to unload the van and saw something furry and brown scoot under the shed. Then, two of our neighbours each brought out their digital cameras to show us proof of our new guest! I'd been trying not to say much about being on the road in my blog because that kind of makes it obvious that you're away. We have someone to check on the house when we go away in August for the tradeshow, but this was a bit trickier since we had a rotation of friends stopping by to keep an eye on things.

Late Saturday night we borrowed a live trap from up the street and baited it with store bought lettuce and broccoli. I had to leave early for church on Sunday morning to practice anthems with the choir since it was our minister’s last service. Just as Nick was shaving, he heard a loud SNAP and looked out to see the whole cage hopping up and down on the back lawn. With a projected high of 34 (around 93 degrees), he thought it a bit cruel to leave the little guy in the cage for hours while we were at church, so he loaded the girls and the rodent into the van. Luckily we have a plastic cargo holder to protect the rear hatch part, because as soon as Nick loaded the groundhog into the scary metal van, he decided to leave his mark in as many ways as possible. They drove down to Mapleton Park, a wonderful wooded area with trails for walking, but also plenty of densely wooded areas, just a few minutes away in the now rather strongly smelling van. The family who was out walking their terrier didn’t actually make the situation better when Nick and the girls brought this poor caged critter out to be released, so they had to wait while the family got their pet loaded into the van and out of earshot. Nick didn’t even have to open the cage all the way before this furry little brown streak took off for the woods like a shot!

I didn’t get to hear the whole story until after church but I was very impressed that they all made it to the 10 am service, properly dressed and with the smelly cargo hold liner freshly washed to boot!

I certainly hope this is the end of our rodent adventures for a while!!!