Nacho's New Friend?

For the last six weeks that we've lived here, we've seen a groundhog occasionally wander into our backyard. Schub has tried to block his little hole, but he has continued to find his way through our fence. Normally we have just banged on the window to see him scurry away. Today was the first day, however that the groundhog had come into our backyard since we got a dog. Nacho was sitting at his favorite place in front of the back door and started going crazy, barking at the rodent intruder. For some reason, Jason and I thought it would be entertaining to let Nacho chase the groundhog, assuming it would just quickly scurry away out through its hole, like we had always seen it do. Well, the groundhog is not as fast as we once thought - especially once you see it trying to run from a big dog.

So we opened the door, and Nacho tore through the yard and in about 3 steps had reached the groundhog and was ready to play. He basically ran over it once and pawed at him a little bit... then the groundhog rolled over on his back. and stayed there. and just laid there. Nacho was so so intrigued. He pawed at him some more and sniffed and sniffed. He was just begging for that thing to play with him. When the groundhog lifted his head for a second and looked like he was going to snap at Nacho, I made Schub go out there and bring Nacho in.

And for the next half hour or so, this is what the groundhog did. He just laid there. I don't know if he was totally stunned and unable to move, or if he was playing dead. FINALLY he slowly lifted his head, looked around, and wobbled back through the hole in the fence. It was quite the excitement for King George county. I was excited, anyway.

* I think you really need to click on the pictures and blow them up in order to get the full effect.