Groundhog Day

For almost seven years I’ve visited the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro on a regular basis, profiling the park’s many animals, plants and pieces of art. From feeding ostriches off the back of a pick-up to underestimating an elephant’s dung-slinging range, I’ve had many a misadventure down off Zoo Parkway. Now that I’m blogging at full-speed, I look forward to sharing some of these visits with you. Hence the following:

This week I made an Asheboro excursion to meet a groundhog named Murphy. Seems this particular marmot is quite the prognosticator, going nine for nine in a snowcast showdown When word that he was once again dragging leaves into his hovel reached our newsroom, producers began to hyperventilate. The weather center was put on high-alert and the suits debated sending the sat truck. Instead they dispatched me, resident zoolander, to get the skinny from the rotund rodent.

But like a lot of meteorologists I know, Murphy doesn’t like to leave the lab. It took several minutes to get the hairy rat out of his hole. For a moment I thought I’d driven a half hour for nothing. The staff at the Wildlife Rehab Center stuck with it though, managing to eventually lure Murphy out with pecans and pillow talk. When he did emerge from his lair, the reluctant star sat up, smacked on a pecan and eyed the paparazzi with sour disdain. After a minute or so he lumbered back to his trailer, with nary a thought given to the shot-sheet at hand.

Man, the egos I have to put up with in this business.