I discovered rock chucks under my house this morning, so a big happy birthday to me! It has been quite the day, I woke up to a delicious pancake breakfast from my sweet daughters with strawberries and orange juice! My boss told me I could come in to work later, and my husband had dinner reservations for that evening; it really seemed like my 35th birthday was going to be my best birthday yet. Except that when I went to get into my car for work, I went out the side door and as I stepped off the concrete pad, my foot went into a hole my very fresh, very hot coffee went all over me.
One trip to the ER later, I’m home with a sprained ankle, first-degree burns on my hand and wrist, and no idea where the hole outside my door came from. But, since my kids are at school and my husband left for work I’ve had plenty of time to look it up. I found an article that talked about woodchucks and skunks, but since I’ve never smelled any kind of skunk spray I focused on the woodchucks, which are small gopher-like creatures. They definitely don’t seem like they could make a hole the size of the one I fell into so I kept digging, and there it was: yellow-bellied marmots, also known as rock chucks, and it looks like one (or possible more) of these rock chucks is under my house.
I’m a lot of things, but a wildlife removal specialist is not one of them, and contrary to what my husband might tell you, he’s not that great of a shot so it seems like I’m going to have to hire someone to come trap this thing. Having it dig around down there is definitely not a good thing, I read that if their tunnels get extensive enough, they could cause foundational damage or undermine driveways and sidewalks! How crazy is that! If falling into a hole was what it had to take to get this rock chuck out from under my house is what it took to stop it before major damage, then I guess it’s not that awful. Besides, I got the day off, and it’s still my birthday.