Groundhog, not Skunks
A month ago, while driving home from work, I noticed a brown furry patch in the grass by the road. “I wonder what that was…a big squirrel? A small bear? A schnuaser?” Oh well.
The next day I saw the same patch in roughly the same spot. What the heck was it?
The third time I drove much slower to see what it was. Would it still be there? Did it live there? Was it an old purse someone threw out their car window? Sure enough, it was a groundhog (Marmota monax) eating the dandelions.
I told my wife about my new friend, and I don’t think she really believed me until I drove her past the spot and she saw him for herself! Too many pronouns! She was very excited and thought it funny he would hang out in the same place all the time.
I started calling him Phil, but he doesn’t look like a Phil, so I need to come up with another name for him. He is cute and cuddly, and would be a welcome house guest compared to the skunks. Maybe I can hire him as a yardkeeper, a kind of guard-hog.
And why groundhog? Do normal hogs not inhabit the ground? “…when pigs fly.” I would call it a pokey-bear or something. What do the Aussies call them? They always have good names.
May 18th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
You could name it ‘Adam Curry.’ How about that?