Wild Kingdom Continues

We have had our experience with wild animals since living here. There were the snakes, recently Shelby treed a raccoon in the tree with the bird feeders, and since hanging the bird feeders we've had our share of squirrels. And did I ever tell you about the wild animal in our fireplace?

The saga continues as you can see by my hubby's own words:

"Well Wild Kingdom at the Smith house took a new a twisted turn this
morning. I went outside to let the dogs out and the heard all kinds of
scratching noises coming from the wooden base next to the hot tub. The
base is made out of Red Wood and it about 2 feet tall. The area under it
is filled with gravel and dirt basically making it a mound covered on all sides
by Red Wood and the house foundation.

Somehow a groundhog had managed to dig under the base and get
trapped between the gravel and the wooden surround. It must have been
trapped for a while because it didn't care that I was there it kept struggling
and scratching to get out and made no attempt to hide from the flash light
or the noises that I made. I had to pry up two of the floor boards to finally
set it free. After it was set free it ran to the out edge of the Hot Tub and sat
there for two to three minutes before heading to the fence and the woods
beyond. This was no small animal, it had to weigh in between 10 and 15 pounds."

This picture shows the scene of the "invasion". My hubby woke me to come see and I wish I had been awake enough to remember the camera because he was a big groundhog and once freed and he was scurrying across the yard as fast as his fat little bottom would allow.


This is a google image of a groundhog. Ours was bigger, and that's no fish tale.

The area under this decking is filled to the top with gravel. He had dug through and was trapped between the boards and the top of the gravel. Poor feller.

The only thing we can figure is he must have been in the yard last evening when the dogs were outside and had burrowed in to hide from them. They had been sniffing around the spa deck area quite intently.

So that means the poor little thing was probably stuck under there all night in that small to non-existent space. He practically lept out when the last board was removed.

Free at last - thank God I'm free at last!

Addendum: As the day continued we discovered the furry little shit chewed through cable, internet and phone lines that run around the perimeter of the decking.