Sunday, June 10, 2007

Oh no, babies!!

I am safely home from the Bead and Button Show. This morning, George and I were getting ready for church and looked out the kitchen window to the bird feeders. There was a baby woodchuck in the white petunia planter! He was really cute, and I really panicked! I went out on the deck to get a closer look and the little guy hightailed it to his home under the garage.

For three years, we have had a woodchuck living under our garage. His name is "Chuckie". In the past he has created havoc with our tomatoes and our flowers, and we have thought long and hard about ways to make him move someplace else. We thought about traps, rock music, rancid oil, guns, everything. We read advice, talked to neighbors and friends and googled woodchuck removal. Nothing seemed possible. Most methods are not humane, and if they are effective, they are not legal. I didn't want to transport a wild animal in a trap in my car. I can just imagine; "Hello, officer, meet my pet, Chuckie."

Last year we planted only flowers that Chuckie doesn't like. We put up a fence with little vials of fox urine around the fence. It worked. He did relatively little damage last year. We were learning how to get along.

This spring, I noticed that we had yet another woodchuck visiting our yard, this one a little smaller, and a little redder. I named her "Red". Seems that Chuckie found a friend. Well, one thing leads to another, and lo...today we have two baby woodchucks. We saw them out there for the first time this morning. They are staying close to home under the garage, but they come out to play, rolling around like cute little cubs.

Unfortunately for us, and for our neighbors, this is a disaster. One woodchuck can do a lot of damage, but four will eat us out of home and garden. They have already chewed up a planter of purple petunias, and if they discover our new baby tomatoes in the garden we are in real trouble. We found out one year that Chuck loved zinnias, since he came right up on the deck and brazenly ate a whole big planter of beautiful zinnias I had just planted. He doesn't eat snapdragons, marigolds or geraniums, but his favorites are baby tomato plants, petunias and zinnias.

I have named the new babies "Woody One" and "Woody Two".

They are really cute! This is a disaster.

Have a great day.