I think one of the hardest aspects of farm life, maybe life in general, is situations such as you describe. I have a continual war on groundhogs. My acreage has woods and pastures surrounded by woods. When groundhogs dig on my property, I trap and dispatch. I am sure you know groundhogs dig holes that are hidden and just the right size for a horse to step in. No mercy . . .except . …we had an early warm spell and looking out at my barn I saw something “not right.” I investigated and it was a groundhog, apparently awoken from early hibernation. As I approached, it sat up, and held its groundhog arms out, groundhog fingers extended in a “please help me” gesture. Sigh. I filled a jug with hot water, got it some horse food, a dish of water, and a big bucket —Placed hot water jug beside groundhog to warm it up, set the bucket on its side for shelter should the groundhog choose (hay in it), and set out the food and water. It grabbed t he grain in its “hands” and ate ravenously. Not knowing where its den was, I left it at that. The next morning it was gone. A week later I found it dead in my field. Best guess it was sick to start with as none of the above is normal groundhog behavior.
Later I found something groundhog size had been living under a storage shed and chewed a groundhog size hole in the floor. Most likely it got in there, ate a few of my archery targets (one was destroyed, then polished off the rat bait I keep in there (it is the one place feral cats cannot patrol).
Recently my DH has taken a shine to a friendly feral cat --I carefully maintain a clowder of 11 with daily feeding and water [raccoon proof feeder] and cameras to keep track of them. He called from work and said he saw that specific feral “near the road.” I did go up to the road (about 1/2 mile) and shooed the feral back toward the barn. But, no, we can’t take it inside as we have inside cats; and I reminded DH that he shouldn’t grow attached to the ferals as they have their own destiny.
It is difficult enough to grieve the loss of actual pets, but the little groundhog’s pleading still resonates.
If you are ever in a mood and want to read a really depressing book, (adult only although actually appears to be written for children) look at Death of a Wombat by Ivan Smith.
