I was born on Groundhog Day. I therefore became inordinately fond of rodents.
Also, the 2nd falls after the first of every month, and many people (e.g. my mother) say “Rabbits rabbits rabbits” on the first. Apparently some say “White rabbit” (that’s Hervé!). It’s supposed to ensure good luck for the rest of the month. Here’s a personal essay about it (not mine, someone else’s). What I tend to do, besides say it, is catch my bunnies and cut their little claws.
But on the 2nd of February, we can say “Groundhogs, groundhogs, groundhogs.”
(Aside: our dog used to drag home dead groundhogs, probably killed by the neighbouring farmer or other people’s cars, and the carcasses would basically dessicate in the yard. What can I say, dogs love rolling around in smelly wild animal things.)
Despite that gross memory (hey, humans are gross), I just cannot. get. enough. cute animal pictures, and groundhogs are about as cute as you can get. They sit on rocks and look wise, like someone you’d ask advice from. They look like they’d be a good friend. I’ve had some come by the homestead and I’m always thrilled to see them!
I once had a nice hike in BC that put me in the company of a marmot. Which brings me to these ones. Vancouver Island Marmots are fancy mountain groundhogs, and one of Canada’s surprisingly few endemic species (that means a species found here, and nowhere else). They’re endangered, and once were critically endangered; habitat and predation was a problem.
Luckily a bunch of do-gooders with cushy jobs (friends, behold, this may be work, but marmots make it a cushy job) are out there breeding, and feeding, and releasing, and spying on these little whistle-pigs. They had 26 litters in the wild in 2013 (their biggest year to date), maybe 75-80 pups. That’s not counting the babies that were captive bred in the zoos, getting ready to be sprung on a needy world, I mean, ecosystem. There are dens and caverns just begging to be re-occupied. If we have a few more good years, their population might rebound!
Watch them on YouTube:
All that to say, I really want to become a marmot shepherd. But I hear it’s a pretty exclusive job, so I want to make sure that job is around (or else made successfully redundant) by the time I am eligible to do it. That’s why I want groundhog money for my birthday. <–Donate here!
The money is going to the Marmot Recovery Foundation (http://marmots.org/). Read all about these special beasties here, and gaze (gape) at the gorgeous photos. I want us to sponsor as many of these mommas and papas as we can.
And if you miss the deadline on this fundraiser – which is February 7th – then you can always donate directly to Marmots.org.
Happy Groundhog Day! And thanks for making it a special one 🙂
(This post originally done in 2014, and revised up to date)
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