Rodent Spotlight: Groundhog

A lot of what I try to do with these blogs is to show you the correlation between real rodents and their fictional counterparts. With groundhogs, something very unique happened. They have been been given almost a fairy branding within the animal kingdom without even being changed from their normal figures and behavior. Allow me to explain.

The most notable celebration of the distinguished rodent comes from the borough of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. You see, there is this odd myth about groundhogs. On February 2nd when the groundhog pops out of his burrow at sunrise, if he happens to notice his own shadow, it means six more weeks of winter. If he fails to see it, then we can surely expect spring to come with haste. The most notable of these questionable groundhog weather-rodents is one by the name of Punxsutawney Phil... OR IS HE?!

According to my entirely credible research, Punxsutawney Phil is no less than sixty-two years old. Pretty weird considering groundhogs only live up to six years. I have come to the conclusion that it is possible that the current Phil may be only one in a long line of Phils. But if you were to ask the residents at Punxsutawney, they would swear that Punxsutawney Phil is the one and only Punxsutawney Phil, and that there is just nothing more to say on the matter.

I imagine living for such a long time, the rodent would be quite good at weather forecasting, and it helps that he only has to worry about the weeks just after February 2nd. Talk about a nice vacation each year. Personally, I rather like the idea of a groundhog weather-rodent. It would be nice to go outside and wait for him to pop out of the ground to give the morning report. I do hope you see my point in all this: human imagination is a very whimsical thing--even when in groups.

Groundhogs are one of those odd, little occasions where we all have fun with out imaginations. We know, at heart, that it is all a bunch of bologna, but we really don't care that it is. It's all about looking out across this world and trying to see something fun about it. We even got an iconic Bill Murray movie out of the deal! Life itself is actually rather boring, but it takes a human being to find something wonderful in it. The groundhog mythos is a grand example of that fact.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tooie@tooiekangaroo.com. Don't drive angry!