Minnie and Max , Lazing AwayThough I live in a suburban community, I’m fortunate to own a sizeable piece of land off the beaten path, secluded and peaceful. And though not surrounded by neighbors, I do have a lot of friends around such as squirrels; rabbits; possums and raccoons; hundreds of birds; an occasional fox strolling through; and I even have a pair of peregrine falcons, magnificant creatures of the air, who’ve taken up nearby roost. But I have two special critters that I hold very dearly to my heart, Minnie and Max; groundhogs, or woodchucks.
These guys have been around for almost thirty years. Well, not these actual ones, but undoubtably several generations of the same family have made this place their home, and this pair took up residence under my storage building, which is of no problem to me. Most people consider these animals pests, but not I. I love all living creatures and the one thing I do not allow on my property is hunting; no guns allowed!
I lovinly dubbed them Minnine and Max the Munchers because they sure do love to munch on my grass. Too bad I don’t have an entire herd of ’em to keep the grass munched down so I wouldn’t have to mow so much.
I was lucky to even get this pic of them; they are very shy and skittish and will run at the least sound. At that, they were gone in a heartbeat as soon as they heard the click of the camera. To look so large and lumbering, with such short legs, they sure can skedaddle fast! And that’s too bad because if I could ever get close enough to them, I might be able to get an answer to that eternal riddle so may have asked: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Oh well; maybe someday…..(“,)
