An "accidental" shot that says a lot about Bella's relationship to our resident groundhogs.

I didn't realize I took this shot until I was doing today's downloads. It's obviously not great photography. However, it's the story this image tells that is meaningful and not the technical image correctness.

Bella looks for the groundhogs and loves to bark at them. However, the strange part of the story is that these groundhogs, not only aren't afraid, but they will actually look for her when she's not out and barking at them. Just like she was one of them.

The original groundhog hole was smack against the fence https://pbase.com/britestar/image/175435505 until my husband finally put two 4x8' plywood boards over the hole to stop them coming right up to the gaps in the fence and looking in at the dogs. This absolutely is not "normal" groundhog behavior. There is some sort of inter species connection going on that has not yet be recorded by science.

Groundhog behavior has not been well studied and is not that well understood. This groundhog is sunbathing on the plywood and the wood beams holding the plywood down. It went out of its way to come here, and it has acknowledged both Bella's and my presence before settling in. Yes, the groundhogs have another hole to their tunnels under the deck out of the frame. We made sure that we weren't trapping them inside before we put the boards down. Their one exit door may now be closed, but they now have a wooden patio to lounge on and still be close to Bella.

As a sidenote: the fence top railing is less than an inch wide, but perspective makes it look much larger. Ditto the bottom railing which is the same size. So, when Bella and the groundhogs meet against the fence, only 1/2" separate them. There are also gaps in the fence that we deliberately left so that Bella could have a view of the backyard.