I'd have a green thumb if I didn't have an animal problem

You know those gorgeous veggies I spent a weekend planting in my garden? Well, my friendly neighborhood woodchuck has eaten half of them!

Almost all my lettuce is gone- he left behind three lone heads, which I'm convinced he'll come back for later. The cucumbers are mere stalks. And the artichoke plant my dad gave me that I hadn't gotten around to planting yet is eaten down to nubs. He even attacked my herbs! He ate my cilantro and parsley! All that's left are my carrots, buried safe beneath the ground. (At least I think they are left, so far there is no sign of them.) My arugula (just sprouting now), my pepper plants and my tomatoes.

My Dad was talking to me about a humane trap to catch the woodchuck family (probably because there are many times when I've yelled at him for trapping helpless little squirrels that like to eat his bird food). And I considered it for a bit. I mean, I would like my veggies to actually grow so we could eat them. But I just don't have the heart, not even to use a humane trap. The way I figure it, I'm putting out a free buffet, who am I to take a woodchuck away from its home for helping himself to that buffet? Plus, I kind of like that I have a family of woodchucks living in my yard. It's kind of fun watching them scurry away when I open the door. It will be even more fun when Aliza sees them, points and yells "woodchuck!" the way Russ and I do when we see them.

I guess that leaves us: woodchuck: 1 The educators: 0