Frank the Berry Thief

Meet Frank.

He's the groundhog who lives in our forest-like backyard. Or at the very least our yard is one of his favorite haunts. Leah has seen him numerous times and was able to snap these photos.

She's also the one who named him Frank. "I don't know. He just looked like a Frank," she says.

At first, we had no clue what it was. All we knew was that it was bigger than our cats, furry and Leah wanted to pet it. We described it to one of her law school friends who then asked us "When it runs, do you see the fat undulating down its back?"

Yeah!

"Groundhog," she says.

Groundhogs, aka woodchucks, are pretty common in these parts I take it. They are part of the rodent family, live in dens and are not fond of foxes or dogs. They eat mostly grasses and berries.

And that explains what happened to the three precious raspberries that were growing on our vine. Damn Frank! I really wanted to try one of those berries.

Last weekend, while I was working in our home office, I heard a rustling outside and was fast enough to see him dart under our fence and into the neighbors yard. Work-be-damned, I grabbed the camera, steadied myself and waited.

And waited. And then grew bored and went back to work.

A few minutes later the rustling kicked up and I saw Frank's fat ass running the other way up our terrace and into the bush. Frank is not only a berry thief that Leah wants to pet but he is also fast.

We will let you know if we snag any better pictures of our new backyard friend.