For several days now I have seen a groundhog hanging around our garden. Several summers ago, the groundhogs pretty much ate everything from the garden so Bob built a fence around the garden and dug it down into the ground to ensure that nothing could dig under. I felt pretty confident that nothing would be able to get in.
Yesterday morning, however, Samuel went down to pick some veggies and was sort of spooked when he saw something moving. For some reason, he described what he saw as a giant frog type animal but was sketchy on the details. So I went down to investigate and found the groundhog trapped in the garden. I never found a hole burrowed under the fence so we are guessing that he got in when the gate was left open.
Bob had been telling me that I needed to shoot it. I looked at him and simply said, "I have no idea how to load a gun let alone shoot it!"
Emily looked up and said, "Mom, even I know how to do that!" And Sam and Jack then said the same.
So I took them at their word and chose Jack to get the gun. At least he has shot a few animals before, so I had the most confidence in him. He knew exactly what to do, got point blank range, and took out the groundhog.
I told him that part of the job of being a hunter is to take care of the animal after it had been shot. After several minutes he came to me and said that it was just too heavy for him to heave out of the garden alone and that he needed my help. I looked at him square in the face and said, "Jack, you are 11 years old. I think you can figure out how to get a dead groundhog out of the garden."
A little while later I looked out and saw him pulling the dead thing out with a snow sled:)
The Garden Hero and the groundhog!
