wildlife in the graveyard

Yesterday afternoon, Robert excitedly called me while he was on his way home. He bikes through the cemetery as a shortcut on his way to and from work, and he'd just seen a fox "frolicking" - he claims it was acting like an exciting puppy, sitting up on its hind legs and waving its arms around. So when he got home I grabbed my camera and we went for a little cemetery walk, in search of the elusive fox.

The weather was perfect - lately it's been freezing in the mornings here, but everything warms up nice by afternoon! So we set out through the graveyard, scanning around for a little red fox. We never found him, but when we got to the very back of the lot, we saw this:


This little animal was standing so still for so long that we seriously considered the idea that he might be a stuffed dead animal (though that would be in really bad taste for a graveyard). I snapped a picture and had already moved on as Robert approached the little beast. Then it ran away! We were very excited to realize he was real. After some research, I'm certain he was a groundhog (aka woodchuck), and that makes me so happy - first groundhog I've ever seen in real life! From wikipedia: "It is common to see one or more nearly-motionless individuals standing erect on their hind feet watching for danger." There you go!