Archaeologists? Public utilities workers? Construction types?

What’s this about?

It’s about “Digger”, a ground hog that thinks he’s protecting our Garden basically by eating it.

Digger stopped in with his parents a few years ago. They looked cute together all munching on my 2 1/2 foot zucchini. Actually it was one of the twelve growing at the time, so honestly I really didn’t care too much. I wanted to leave them alone, as I figured they would go away after getting their fill, but I did need to get some tomatoes for pasta sauce. Well, as soon as I opened the gate the parents fled instantly – they’ve been around long enough to know how to bolt our of the garden quickly. Unfortunately Digger was young enough to be clueless. It was sad seeing this baby of a ground hog scared stiff watching it’s parents run down the hill. Digger had a look in his eyes that clearly said, “Mom …. Dad …. ummmmm ……. I think you forgot about me.” I seem to remember things happening like this when I worked in malls in the late 80s.

After his parents made it all the way down the hill and out of sight … Digger scurried around to look directly at me with his eyes basically saying, “please don’t eat me”. He was about the size of my fist at the time. A few minutes later with me not making much of a move, Digger seemed relaxed enough for me to approach and get a chance to guide him out of the garden. Even when I tried to nudge him out, he stayed still … he was comfortable enough to eat a bit in front of me, but not enough to follow my encouragement towards the exit. I decided to leave the entrance open and hope that no deer would come into the garden and damage it. I was thinking his parents would come back to take him home.

When I checked later that night, Digger was still in the garden and in the same general area – no parents had shown, even with no people present. I physically nudged Digger our the door with my hand little by little until he was in the grass. He didn’t seemed stressed and actually sniffed my shoes a few times. After a while with me watching him from our sun room, he decided to explore down the hill where he noticed his parents going last. I figured I’d see the three of them together later the next day.

Well, no parents the next day, and Digger was foraging himself … he seemed to get along OK. At some point I knew he would pick things up and survive … probably meeting with his parents in the process. I was wrong … I’d see him every day out in the field, with no family … they seemed to have abandoned him. This seemed sad, but I guessed it was just part of nature.

One day a little while after all of this happened I was sitting at the entrance of our sun room, I heard a noise in the flowers next to me. It was Digger. He, so slowly, came over to me and started sniffing my shoes (he did that once on the garden before I guided him out). He then sniffed the other one, put his paws on my leg and looked up at me – almost if to say “thank you”. He occasionally showed up in the yard and seemed to recognize me and my family. More than once I’ve seen him walk past and next to our dog. They really didn’t seem to mind and almost seemed to know each other as sort of friends.

Digger has hung around our house for years now …. causing no damage (believe me, we check). He always seems to stop and look at us as if to say “Hi” and go about his business. He has slowly become part of out family (I’ve even seen him sunning himself once on top of our dog – it was amusing). Our original dog, Brandy is really relaxed, so I’m not sure this will continue of the new retriever sees him … but we’ll see. You never know what dog communicate to each other about their other furry friends outside.

This almost reminds me of a very old show called Grizzly Adams. The animals in that show easily existed with the humans around them …

Maybe we can learn a bit from the?

-SWB

PS.  We’re pretty sure that Digger thinks he’s a dog now. He looks at people like they should toss him treats. Also … he doesn’t like Phil (he was irritated with the length of winter this year).