Groundhog Day

50 points if you can find Mama Groundhog's eye peering out of her den. She's there...I promise...a little above center.

She and her kits had been enjoying a sunny afternoon of leaf munching, when they were rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of an oddly forbidding statue (me...sitting in a lawn chair with a camera propped upon my knee) just a few feet outside their front porch...

...but there was more munching to do yet! After eyeing me cautiously for a few minutes, she decided to give the ok for each kit to come back out.

One...

                                            ...two...

...and number three climbing out over the top of his long-suffering brother (or sister...I have no way to tell). Zoom in on these photos to see the details of their interaction...it really is quite precious.

That number three was the gutsy one. Vaulting past his two siblings, he bounded out from behind the bushes without a care in the world.

Well, almost. Under Mama's skeptical supervision, he didn't get much past the bushes before pausing to eye me warily.

Eeeeeee! I wish that stray piece of hair would quit tickling my forehead! 

A moment later, they'd all plunged back underground.

...and I finally rubbed away the tickle!