Caddyshack?

Remember the gopher from Caddyshack? You know, the part of the show that felt like a bad Road Runner cartoon? "I'm going to get you gopher." The reason that I bring this up is that I feel I'm living parts of the gopher sequence.

No. I don't have gophers, rather my garage has a small infestation with a woodchuck. I don't mind the animal, but I despise the fact that he's torn up the gravel floor in my garage, and in general has caused a huge mess.

I had this problem about four years ago, and the woodchuck moved on or something. It just kind of stopped one day. That's not at all like the critter that I've got now. This one is tricky. I've tried home remedies to make him leave my garage alone, even purchased some nasty smelling pellets and sprinkled the garage area, but all to no avail.

I've finally resorted to purchasing a live trap and I've been trying for the last four days to bait the critter. I checked the chart that came with the trap, and it said that woodchucks would eat cat food and vegetables.

I baited the trap with cat food and the next morning, I ran to the back door to look out on my accomplishments. The trap was set off! Success! Then I noticed some movement in front of my car. It was the woodchuck sitting on his hind legs looking and smiling at me, definitely not in the trap.

So I ran outside to see what was in the trap... opossum. Great... I didn't know that I had that problem too. So I drove the opossum out into the country and let him go. Then I proceeded back to try to bait the trap.

No I don't have the animal removed yet, and to be honest with the boys wanting to play outside, I'm a bit nervous. If they corner the woodchuck, I'm afraid that they might get hurt. The other problem is the size of wholes this thing digs! I wish it would have helped me dig out the areas in the retaining wall!

"I'm going to get you woodchuck." And then it's off to the country for you.