The One That Got Away - Page 1

The springtime weather today is outstanding! The pool will be opened up soon. The garden has been spruced up, so, I want to enjoy it all and take a walk with the dogs to check out all the budding and growing things.

And then, I see it! A great big hole underneath the yew, and another hole popping up the slope a few yards near by. I thought Beau took care of all those pesky, digging varmints! Clearly, there is one that got away!

The orders are confirmed and immediate! Take no prisoners! No woodchucks allowed inside the pool area! And so it begins... again...! 😖

  

When I first saw this title I thought a dog had gotten away and was relieved to see that it was a woodchuck. Beau looks intent on getting this last one and I'm sure he'll succeed. Great photos!

If the chuck is too wily to be caught by the dogs, you can try what my dad did when the rural property they owned was invaded. The invaders were destroying Dad's vegetable garden, and he was getting pretty upset.

He looked into different poisons and traps, but they all required a special license, which he didn't have. I had a go at it with my bow and arrow, but it was too quick for me.

He finally resorted to a method farmers have been using for a long time. He blocked up all the burrow's holes, except for one. He backed his car up to the main entrance to the burrow, ran a flexible hose from the car's muffler into the burrow, and turned on the engine.

No more woodchuck! It's a relatively humane way of doing it, too. Certainly more humane than being torn apart by a dog!

Sunsilver,

I don't think I have the terrain or the right man for the job, to asphixiate the critter(s). As a matter of fact, we have a proper sized Hav-A-Hart trap, too. More of a Francis Macomber type, lol, from that Hemingway story. I won't even trust him to check the trap on a timely basis, and then there is the problem of what to actually do with whatever is caught! Mostly, I am afraid he'd take advice from the movie, Caddyshack!

Also, when Beau makes the kill it is very quick. A bite behind the neck and a good shaking, and it's all over. Mere seconds. Only then, if not being observed, the head somehow ends up somewhere, the body isn't!

@Bev,

Yes, Beau is a very determined hunter! He just needs the woodchuck to make one small mistake of complacency. The pool gate meanwhile is being left, ajar, (for Beau only). Mojo can open and close the gate at will, he's the brain of the team!