Divide and Conquer

This amazes me to no end, but we managed to catch a woodchuck alive. I was literally floored when I saw it. Thanks to D&CH for their trap, and WM for his advice on how to use it. WM is a former professional trapper who gave me a death trap to catch woodchucks. He also said he'd heard bananas, of all things, were good for baiting woodchucks. This, of course, makes perfect sense because bananas are native to Vermont.

Anyway, when we first got the trap, I had my doubts. These humane ways to catch animals don't always seem to work, but we had nothing to lose other than more cabbage. I put a banana in the trap and left it near where we thought the animal was getting in. After several days of checking, I figured it wasn't going to work and kind of forgot about it.

Also, being the lazy bum that I am, I didn't bother moving the thing, so it sat there for several days, if a couple of weeks. Every day, however, I told myself to get that thing out of there and give it back to the H's.

Well, yesterday, R and the kids went down to the garden to get some tomatoes, which seem to be doing well, and I joined them. We didn't even bother looking at the trap, and while the kids were picking veggies, I glanced at the trap and couldn't believe my eyes. There was a hairy beast inside.

We all ran over and looked, and sure enough, there was a woodchuck trapped inside. He could have been in there for days for all we knew. He was bummed, and a little testy. The kids put some green beans in the cage in case he was hungry. How's that being held captive.

I got some gloves and put the cage in our wheelbarrow. I then lined the trunk of the car and put the cage in. We then drove about 5 miles away near river and let him go in the woods. I was a little worried he'd attack us and brought along a baseball bat, just in case. Not that I was prepared to use it, but you just never know.

I'm still in shock that we caught the bugger. I'm sure there are more, and our garden is still under assault, but when your gardening spirit has been crushed natural forces, you'll take whatever bone Mother Nature will throw you.

Now we have to set the trap and put it in the garden to catch the rest of the family. I hope the H's don't need it back anytime soon.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to ARL and NRL for the pics.