On Wed, 29 May 2013 14:22:36 -0400, Frank wrote:

Groundhog, little tough, but taste like chicken.

People do eat ground hog but I never have. They are cute as can be
especially the little ones. There are lots of them in the park where I
ride the bike. But a few years ago we had a bumper crop of ground hogs.
They were EVERYWHERE!

And one decided to dig under the foundation of my house! So I filled in
his hole and he'd dig it back out! I shoved bricks down his hole and he'd
shove them back out! I even poured concrete down his hole and he dug a
parallel hole right next to it.

Sorry, cute or not when the foundation of my house is at stake it's no
more Mr. Nice guy. Can't shoot them in the city, so I start digging out
his hole with a shovel but was making no progress. So I took the hose and
shoved it down there and filled his hole with water! Pretty soon he
sticks his head out and I give him a good whack with the shovel! He
shakes his head and takes off running down the street at top speed with
me chasing him like a mad man swinging the shovel. He got away.

Then I filled in his hole and he never came back. I can hear him telling
his ground hog buddies about the mad man that lives over where he had his
hole.

Speaking of trap and release, my house is old, full of holes in the
foundation and before I had a cat, every fall zillions mice would move in
looking for a winter home. So I set up a trap with this tall barrel and
peanut butter where they'd fall in and couldn't get out. Pretty soon I
had maybe 15 mice in there!

So I was going to take the barrel down to the railroad tracks and release
them, but it was cold and snowing and I only got as far as the vacant lot
next to my neighbor's house. A couple of weeks later, I'm talking to my
neighbor and she's telling me that she can't understand it, but suddenly
all these mice appeared in her house from nowhere! I say nothing and
just lay low.