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Travel tales of an empty nester
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Home  >  Blog  >  The Gallery – Creatures – Small Furry Animal

The Gallery – Creatures – Small Furry Animal

Trish Burgess Posted on21/06/201007/04/2016 Canada, The gallery 22 Comments

Two summers ago we had a fascinating fly-drive round Eastern Canada, visiting cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Quebec. A few days were spent in Ottawa, which I had read had been dubbed one of the dullest cities in North America. With our expectations therefore pretty low, we were pleasantly surprised by how charming it was. There was something rather British about it, including The Changing of the Guard every morning and architecture very reminiscent of Edinburgh.

As usual I was spouting forth nuggets from our guide-books, boring the boys witless about the fact that Queen Victoria supposedly chose Ottawa as Canada’s capital based on a pretty watercolour painting she’d seen. I also amused myself with the thought of contracting “Beaver Fever” during our stay; much ribbing from husband about it being too hot to handle and such-like. Oh how we laughed.

It was while we were ambling along in Ottawa that we kept seeing little furry animals popping out of holes near the river bank and along the canal. They were quite chubby, with reddish brown fur and probably measured about 2 ft in length. We sat at a cafe by the canal trying to decide what they were. In the end I plucked up the courage to go inside to ask the cashier.

“Can you tell me what the little furry animals are outside?”

“Sure”, he replied, “They’re groundhogs”

“Groundhogs! Like in the film, Groundhog Day?”

“Yup, that’s right, we have hundreds of them round here”.

Who’d have thought it! I was very excited when I returned to the boys to tell them. We gave Rory a quick synopsis of the film: Bill Murray gets stuck in time during Groundhog Day and has to replay the day over and over again.

Dougie then smiled wickedly and said,

“I dare you”

“Dare me to what?”

“Go back into the cafe and ask him again”.

This is my entry for The Gallery this week, the theme of which is “Creatures”.

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22 Comments

  1. Deer Baby Reply
    21/06/2010 at 2:01 pm

    That's hilarious!!! Did you do it??? They look just like little beavers though. Reminds me of a sketch on the Adam and Joe show where they went into the pound shop and kept asking the assistant how much things cost. "It's a pound mate. Everything's a pound. " Until they were asked to leave for being a nuisance.

    Love Bill Murray. That's one of his finest films I think. Since then he's made some stinkers.

    I'd love to go to Canada.

  2. TheMadHouse Reply
    21/06/2010 at 4:27 pm

    I agree with Deer Baby, how funny is that. The boys Godparents loved Canada and have visited 4 times!

  3. Steve Reply
    21/06/2010 at 5:36 pm

    I thought it was an otter! That's my nature-watch pretensions cut right down to size!

  4. Chelle Reply
    21/06/2010 at 8:25 pm

    Hahahaha, great story!
    The groundhog looks really cute:-)

  5. MadameSmokinGun Reply
    21/06/2010 at 11:20 pm

    Did you though? Did you?

  6. MadameSmokinGun Reply
    21/06/2010 at 11:20 pm

    Did you though? Did you?

  7. MadameSmokinGun Reply
    21/06/2010 at 11:21 pm

    Did you thou…………… Ok I'll get me coat.

  8. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    22/06/2010 at 7:05 am

    NO!!! I chickened out big time!

    I reckoned the amusement we were having just thinking about it couldn't be improved upon if I acted it out – I suspect it might have fallen flat. If I'd been a bit pie-eyed I might have…

  9. jfb57 Reply
    22/06/2010 at 7:32 am

    They are gorgeous & not at all as I imagined! Did you go back in?!!!

    Love the new look blog BTW

  10. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    22/06/2010 at 7:35 am

    @jfb57 – no I didn't (see reasons above!!)

    Glad you like new look – have been fiddling about with it but found the blue look last week too cold. This makes me feel like summer holidays.

  11. Julie - Kailexness Reply
    22/06/2010 at 1:42 pm

    Cute!

  12. Emma Reply
    22/06/2010 at 2:34 pm

    I thought they were beavers too! They look so cute! 🙂

  13. Troy Reply
    22/06/2010 at 9:35 pm

    I've only been there once, on business about 20 years ago and never saw any groundhogs. All I can remember is some great buildings, the canal which freezes and is a skate commute in winter, eating at the top of a building in a revolving restaurant and being told the city on the other side of the river was Hull.

  14. redtedart Reply
    22/06/2010 at 9:51 pm

    I want to know too – did you go back and ask!?

    I thought it was a beaver… you learn something new every day!

    Maggy

  15. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    23/06/2010 at 6:20 am

    @Troy – we were there in the summer so they must have come out of hiding. Yes we went over the river to Hull too, though as it's in Quebec they call it Gatineau (much prefer Hull!)

    @Redtedart – no, big coward!

  16. Mother Hen Reply
    23/06/2010 at 8:09 am

    funny story and great picture. They're not camera shy then. I have heard that Ottawa is a bit on the quiet side.

  17. MrsW Reply
    23/06/2010 at 8:43 am

    Oh you so should have! Than again – the Quebecois (sp?) are not exactly famous for their sense of humour 🙂

  18. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    23/06/2010 at 9:39 am

    @Mother Hen and @MrsW – Ottawa is in Ontario so is English-speaking and very friendly (if a little quiet). Just the other side of the river is the state of Quebec and yes, quite a difference. We stopped off for some lunch in the middle of nowhere and thought the chef was going to brandish his knife as we had asked for a hot dog and couldn't understand his reply. We were rescued by a couple from Toronto who explained he wanted to know if we preferred the hot dog roasted or boiled! FFS! Just stick it in a bloody baguette.

  19. christinemosler Reply
    23/06/2010 at 11:29 am

    Hilarious!!!! I am giggling, can you hear me? Lovely to see wild animals, in the wild, great photo and fab story! x

  20. @jencull (jen) Reply
    23/06/2010 at 3:27 pm

    Lol at the dare, very clever though 😀 I have never seen a groudhog before, I expected them to be bigger, no idea why 🙂 Great photos 🙂

  21. planb Reply
    23/06/2010 at 6:09 pm

    Just snorted unattractively. Hilarious. Wish you had, but know I'd have bottled it too!

  22. New Mummy Reply
    23/06/2010 at 6:38 pm

    How funny, that would be something my family would dare me to do

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