It’s Groundhog’s Day.   The news this morning has reported various and conflicting groundhog reports.   Punxsutawney Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter while Staten Island Chuck has predicted an early spring.   At my home, however, we have our own groundhog, Wally.    A few months after we moved into our house, my husband Carey said, “I saw a strange animal in the backyard.   I think it’s a beaver.”   As there is no stream or river in our yard, I suspected it wasn’t a beaver, and determined that is was a groundhog, and that it was living under the shed in our yard.   We named him Wally, since it wasn’t “The Beaver.”  Last Spring we noticed that Wally seemed sluggish; Wally had gained weight and was moving slowly and I feared that it was old age.   In early May, however, we saw Wally with two little groundhogs.  Apparently Wally is female; we named the little groundhogs Clarence and Eddie.

We have decided not to pull our groundhogs out from under our shed today but to let them finish their hibernation until Spring arrives.   It’s a cloudy day here so I know they wouldn’t see their shadows anyway.