Woody Woodchuck Loves My Garden

Big, fat, and happy

My mom was looking out my kitchen window the other week when she asked “What’s that big brown thing on the lawn?”  I figured her eyesight was failing – there couldn’t be a big brown thing on the lawn since we don’t have a dog and Squiggy, the cat who thinks she’s a dog, is white and grey. But she insisted “Come and look – it’s just sitting there!”  So I ambled over, looked out the window, and just about hit the roof.  It was a huge, fat, and very happy looking woodchuck!  In MY garden!

So, of course, I charged out into the garden yelling “Git! Get out of here!” (glad no one had a video camera to post that on YouTube!!)  It looked at me, sat for a moment, and finally decided to make a run for it’s home – which turned out to be under my shed, beside the compost bins.

And now we’re at an impasse.  Woody is living under the shed, eating all the veggies that poke out through the wire fencing around the vegetable garden, and basking in the sun on the lawn and stone pathway.  I’m watching him through the kitchen window and dreaming about HavaHart traps and .22′s.  The trap we have is big enough for a raccoon but I doubt Woody would fit. As for rifles, well…. not allowed within city limits. Besides, I can’t bring myself to shoot him (or anything else living for that matter – target practice only). So far he hasn’t made a meal out of any of my ornamental plants but I figure it’s just a matter of time….

Any ideas for how to handle Woody Woodchuck??