A visitor in the backyard

Oh cute... Sorry, only word coming up is Marmotte?

Had deers once but picture had been taken on phone and was lost. Days before the camera-phone, had a blue jay, a red cardinal and a robin's red breast. No pics but memories...
We call them Ground Hogs, or Woodchuck here in Missouri.

groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through much of the Eastern United States, across Canada and into ... Wikipedia
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I haven't had any deer in the yard this year that I can recall. Often I'll see them (or what they leave) around my apple tree when it begins to drop fruit.

One of the reasons I keep after the apples now is that we can be ticketed for illegally feeding deer. The population is out of control and that has led to a number of diseases they can pass on to cattle.
 
Woodchuck? We don't have them around here but have tons of ground squirrel though. I first saw a woodchuck in-person this last June, while visiting DW's aunt in Vermont. There was a dead one laying outside her shed, I shoveled it up at tossed it off into a ravine.
 
We have raccoons, opossums, squirrels, rabbits and stray/feral cats. We feed them in the front yard. The back yard belongs to Lily, my Yorkie. I let Lily out by herself during the day, but I accompany her out after dark because I don't trust the raccoons not to come into the back yard checking things out. They are three times Lily's size, so she's no match for them - although being a Yorkie, she thinks she is. We've taken in several feral cats. One was unfortunately so far gone, we couldn't save him. We currently have a very petite mommy cat and her baby. They are getting their shots and will be scheduled for spaying in the next month or so.
 
I have an opossum visit every night. I give him/her leftover cat food my cats won't eat. I'm not a fan of feeding wildlife, but boy does that stinker ever clean up the waste.
 


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