No seriously, do you know what this is?
What the dogs caught today
The morning routine started out very predictable. Cows were fed, then sprayed for flies, chickens fed, dogs were given cheese treats, and then I needed to water the garden and flowers. So after the garden was watered and I was watering my new plants, I heard the dogs barking. When the dogs bark, this could mean quite a few different things. It can mean that there is a cat nearby, it could mean that they found a field mouse, it could mean that there are geese flying over, or like today it meant that they found this animal. You know when you finally get to the point when you think, OK I’m coming! That’s what happened and when I got to where they were having this fit, I almost died. There was this animal laying on the ground and was pretty close to dead. The dogs stood really proud and I took the animal away from them because I didn’t want it to get mean or anything and bite them. I ran and got my camera and Apollo just stood by it looking like it was his hunting trophy. It was really funny, and if you would have drove by our farm this morning you would have seen him guarding it until I came back. I thought that maybe it was a really big gopher, and I put it into the dog kennel until I could show Daryl. I wanted to make sure it was really dead before I messed with it, and after a couple of hours I went out to see if I could find the ‘gopher pockets’ to check if it was a gopher, and there wasn’t any – so I was stumped. When Daryl came home I asked him to go outside because I wanted to show him something. He looked a little nervous when I got out my yellow chore gloves before we headed outside. We still weren’t sure what it was, and we looked it up on the internet we found out that it was a woodchuck. They are also called groundhogs and belong to the squirrel family. I was surprised on how big it was and found out that they usually get 20 to 27 inches long and weigh 5 to 12 pounds.I have no idea why we would have one of these around our farm, and I’m wondering if they travel in packs? And where is it now you ask? It’s in the back of Daryl’s pickup bed. Hopefully he’ll find a home for it later tonight and won’t forget that it’s back there before he drives to work tomorrow 🙂
Feeling quite proud
Apollo and his hunting trophy
That’s a woodchuck. Been watching one of them lately feasting on our gardens at work.
I sure hope this is the first and last one we see at our farm. I’m not too thrilled if they get into gardens!
I don’t ever recall seeing a creature like that either.
It really looks creepy.. I think I have lost my “farm girl” up-bringing.
Rodents of any kind freak me out! Good Dog:)
we have a lot of groundhogs in our area. they are funny to watch, because sometimes they will sit up on their hind legs and just kind of check things out. they are just a nuisance animal more than anything.