How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?

I work in an area nicknamed named “the fishbowl.” Our room of cubicles is encased by almost floor to ceiling windows looking into a hallway, which has more windows extending to the outside. So anyone wandering the hallways can look in at us, walking around, darting into cubes, and staring back out at them, wondering when we’ll see freedom.

Today I was standing staring avidly out one of the windows. My co-workers passed me by and asked what I’m doing lurking outside my cube. To which I replied, “There’s an animal out there, and I can’t figure out what it is. I think it might be a beaver, but don’t beavers live near water?” The furry brown animal was sitting in a huge lawn of grass. Then she looked out too, and she noted, “It looks like a rabbit, except for the tail.” I agreed, “It doesn’t have the ears for a rabbit too.” She guessed, “I think it’s a squirrel.” “That’s a pretty huge squirrel,” I repsonded. Can they get that big, I wondered, thinking of some of the French river rats I had seen, which were admittedly the size of a beaver. Then finally some wandering business man called out “It’s a woodchuck” as he passed by. I was amazed, “Wow, a woodchuck, I’ve never seen one before. Is that what one looks like?” We stared at it for a while. Then my co-worker spoke, “I’ve never seen a woodchuck either, you think he said chipmunk.” I was thinking it’s still too big for a chipmunk, and we needed to stop augmenting small rodents to justify the appearance of this new creature. So enough wasting our precious work time, I went back to my comp to check it out online. It was a woodchuck, aka groundhog. For those of you who have never seen one either, here’s a photo. Another one of my great NY experiences.

How much do you care?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many of us are being affected by the barrage of new stories and higher gas prices. However, as we are not actually there, there is no way to truly understand what it feels like. Empathy alone seems to me inconsequential compared to what actually is going on. We can only imagine the pain of loosing your home and loved ones, and be grateful that it is not us and pray for those who are still suffering.

I just heard the stories about people being forced to abandon their pets in order to get a seat on a transport or bus. I think if it was me, this would be the last issue to tip me over. It’s one thing to loose everything that you have, but then to have to give up something willingly would be completely agonizing. I don’t know if I could leave my dog behind on the street while I got on a bus and drove away. But in the end if you’re being evacuated, it won’t be optional. At least, there are several rescues working on bringing pets to shelters, where they might one day be reunited with their owners in the future or be adopted with a new family. This natural disaster reminds me of old war movies of people who were displaced from their homes and separated from each other only to hopefully be reunited after the tragedy is over.

If you’re interested in helping out pet rescues follow this link.