weather report

Groundhog Predicts Endless Winter After Getting Head Stuck in Can

A groundhog in eastern Pennsylvania made an impromptu weather forecast on Monday after seeing nothing but shadows due to the tin can stuck on its head. The rodent was eventually freed by the campus police at Lehigh University — and the moment was saved for posterity thanks to the body cameras worn by the officers. 

Simply pulling on the can proved fruitless, so the officers grabbed a dog snare and kept tugging while worried onlookers provided live commentary. “It’s coming off, it’s coming off,” Officer Kevin O’Hay says in the video. “Unless it’s his fur. Slowly. Slowly. His ears are out.”

Ground hog rescue!Good job Officer O'Hay & Sgt. Smith!

Posted by Lehigh University Police Department on Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The groundhog’s head finally emerged to find that Pennsylvania had not been rendered into an eternal arctic wasteland, and it quickly ran away from the strange humans that had been painfully playing tug-of-war with it. Later in the week, Chief Ed Shupp said “the only disappointment was the furry little devil took off without saying thank you.” According to the Morning Call, this “was the first time his officers have had to pull a groundhog out of a can.”

It was not clear whether the groundhog had found a stray SpaghettiO or sweet potato in the can, or if it was engaging in traditional groundhog-mourning practices after the death of Milltown Mel, New Jersey’s famous and mostly accurate rodent meteorologist, last month. 

Groundhog Predicts Endless Winter