Saturday was wildlife day at the Steuck household, as it was full of snakes, birds, toads and groundhogs.
Since moving in more than a month ago, I’ve been waiting for the wildlife. Although the house is in the city, it’s on the edge of town and is surrounded by plenty of natural landscape. Several years ago, before we built the house, neighbors spotted a bear on our property, and I have heard from others that cougars and wolves have been spotted in the area. But, other than a whole slew of birds who like to wake me up too early in the morning, the wildlife has been quiet.
That is until Saturday when all the animals decided they wanted to live in our yard, and in one case, in our house.
It started with the groundhog. While putting dishes away, my wife, Jenny, looked out the kitchen window and spotted a small brown animal on a rock ledge behind the house. Our son, Braden, and I looked out and spotted it, too. My wife initially thought it was a beaver, but I knew right away it was a groundhog, or a woodchuck as it is also commonly known.
I don’t know much about groundhogs, except that my dad used to shoot them when he spotted them on our property. He said they are a nuisance and didn’t want them there. I don’t have a gun, and even if I did, I could never bring myself to shoot it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s fun to watch it from our window. At one point while watching it, we thought we spotted a baby, but neither of us could confirm for sure that’s what we saw.
Later that afternoon, while in the garage, I spotted a bird in the rafters. Finally having a garage now to allow our cars to avoid becoming encased in the byproducts of birds, I wasn’t about to allow it to do so now. I tried shooing it out, and I could tell it wanted to get out, but it didn’t know how. The garage door below the rafters prevented it from seeing its escape route. I tried for five minutes to get it out, even at one point going outside, lying on my stomach and calling it to hopefully see the exit.
At this point, Jenny came out and told me to let the bird rest awhile, as it’s probably getting tired of flying around hopelessly in the garage. As long as we were outside, she said we should walk around the lawn to come up with ideas on landscaping. As we were walking in front of the house, she spotted a grass snake on our front porch with a toad in its mouth. Basically, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
She didn’t think so, jumping back about five feet and instructing me to get rid of it.
My first instinct, though, was to get Braden who was in the house. “Come outside and see something cool,” I told him walking past the snake and into the house. He ran out and agreed with me, immediately wanting to call his grandmother to let her know what he was seeing. It’s kind of torture on his part, because he knows his grandmother is deathly afraid of snakes.
I knew I had to get rid of the snake when it took its prey and started going under our house. Like the unwanted bird, we did not want a slithery unwanted reptilian houseguest. I grabbed it by its tail and held it at arm’s length, knowing it wouldn’t be able to reach me if it tried to bite. It’s first reaction was to let go of the toad and come after me. I couldn’t blame it, as who would want me holding it by its rear.
I went across the street and let it go in some high grass near a neighborhood park. Jenny said I shouldn’t have put it there, but it seemed the only logical place to go if she didn’t want it back on our property.
Maybe the bird was frightened by the snake, too, as it finally left after I put the garage door down halfway in an attempt to let it see the exit.
The toad the snake attempted to eat was probably the same toad I told Braden to release after he caught it when we first moved in. To convince him to let it go, I told him it was our “Guard Toad” and that it would guard our house from any bad things. I guess we better find another toad now.
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Originally published in The Portage County Gazette on Friday, July 22, 2011.
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