“Remoted” – Workday 63 / Day 85 (Tuesday)

Bird in the nest out front.

It is like a wild animal farm lately in my usually tame yard in P-Ville. There is a bird sitting on the nest on the drainpipe out front and a lot of cardinals and robins. Chuck, the resident giant rodent is a regular yard visitor. I’ve seen Chuck (or one of his fellow groundhog rodent critter pals) emerging from under a shed (mine or the neighbor's), waddling up the embankment at the end of the street which separates us from Beaver Brook, alongside my deck, and in various yards on the street and wondered how many individual ground hogs there are in the immediate area, and if the one in my yard each year is the same critter or a new tenant. I’m no animal expert, but it seemed unlikely there would be just the one. Yesterday, I noticed a white patch on Chuck’s nose that I didn’t remember seeing before, but it didn't really register beyond "Hey, he's going gray, too!"

Four Chucks out back!

This morning before work, as I stood at the kitchen sink half awake, drinking coffee and looking out the window admiring my irises and the peony that is sooo close to opening, I saw Chuck by the shed, looking extra fluffy. Then Chuck seemed to split, and there were three mini-Chucks and maybe it was Mrs. Chuck. Hard to know, as we’ve never had the chance to talk about family. The mini-Chucks each have a white patch on the nose so Chuck may not be graying after all.  The mini-Chucks ate and frolicked and tumbled and wrestled and were just adorable, while big Chuck was nearby looking mostly tired, but that is just me assigning human conditions to a woodland creature.

My past criticism of Chuck has focused on the dining. There are select greens from the yard that are eaten. If there was less pickiness to the eating, I wouldn’t need to mow, but the dining choices leave a very irregular effect with close cropped greens surrounded by tall clumps of other, evidently less desirable greens. And don’t even get me started on my purple Columbine that has been devoured for two years now. I thought we had an agreement about not eating the flowers, but Chuck has abandoned that. Apparently my purple Columbine is superior in taste to the neighbors’, as they have a beautiful flowering cluster in their front yard right now, while I have a few tattered leaf remnants and a bare stem.

Moose seems to have poor eyesight or a case of "don't give a crap" and doesn’t notice the neighborhood cats and groundhogs, but Winston has chased after Chuck before, in the street out front and in the back yard. Chuck has a series of hidey-holes under the deck and the sheds and I’ve seen it disappear into spaces that look much too small for its fluffy bulk. Good thing, because I don’t know even want to think about what the scene would be if Winston ever caught him. The mini-Chuck younglings seem unafraid. One was poking its head out from under the shed while the dogs and I were in the yard. I clapped loudly, and it backed into the hole making the cutest squeak toy noises. If Winston catches anything, it would probably be one of the young ones, but luckily, Winston isn’t moving too quickly these days so I may not have to worry. He’s had problem with both back legs and he’s teetering along like an old man, which breaks my heart but also feels like a blessing right now.

I’ll be keeping a watch over Chuck and the minis. As long as they don’t destroy anything or get destroyed themselves, it will all be fine.