Groundhog Day

This afternoon my fierce and vicious dog Joxer went out into the backyard to discover a giant groundhog. This must have been the world's biggest scariest groundhog ever; honestly, he was more than twice as wide as my dog(not that that's saying much) and longer. Joxer, neighborly fellow that he is, wanted to play. He ran up to Huge Monster Groundhog and did his version of tag - hit it with his front paws and ran off. Apparently groundhogs don't know how to play tag, because the groundhog didn't give chase, he just bared his teeth, no lie, and hissed which I didn't know groundhogs could do. By this point, I'd made it out to where the dog was to rescue him from the beast before it ate him. I dragged him back to the house (he was still trying to engage the groundhog in the game), and watched it through the screen door for a few minutes. Normally, I'd just let the thing wander off, but it was having a hard time find its way out of the yard and since I have a dog and baby to think about and didn't want to spend the rest of the day in the house, I did what any educated, independent, competent woman does when faced with the unknown. I called my Daddy. Dad said Animal Control no longer cares about groundhogs, assured me that they are generally non-violent and told me to just wait him out. As usual, Dad was right, and eventually the groundhog did find his escape and mosey away. But beware, he's still out there.