PunxsutawneyPhil Got Busy With Phyllis in the Off-Season
Prognosticating rodent Punxsutawney Phil may not have seen this one coming: last week he and wife, Phyllis, became new parents, to at least two baby groundhogs. The births surprised a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, who discovered the arrivals only when he came to feed the parents fruit and vegetables.
“We’re pleased to announce that Punxsutawney Phil has had his first children; we believe there are two baby groundhogs and that Phil and Phyllis have started a family,” Thomas Dunkel, president of the top hat-and-tux wearing group called The Inner Circle that carries on the groundhog tradition each year, said at a news conference.
Committed to the bit, Dunkel continued: “We’re pleased about it, and I talked to Phil with my cane, which lets me speak Groundhogese, and Phil could not be more excited that he started a family.”
Phil and Phyllis live in climate-controlled digs at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, but now they're going to need a bigger place. The club plans to move them into a larger home on the library’s grounds. The babies have not yet been named, nor do we know their genders. The human caretakers will give the little family some private bonding time before intruding.
Let’s hope Phil makes a better father than a weatherman. This year on his big day Phil saw his shadow, which should harbinger an early spring. We’re still waiting.
Photo credit: WTAJ Altoona via MSN
