Punxsutawney Phil and his wife welcome baby groundhogs
PHILADELPHIA — We’re pleased to bring you very serious and important breaking news regarding cute, furry, baby animals and Pennsylvania lore: Punxsutawney Phil and his wife, Phyllis, have babies.
As first reported by ABC27 News, the iconic groundhog couple has welcomed two baby groundhogs into their family. Although we don’t know their names, Thomas Dunkel, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, told the TV station that the woodchuck pups are healthy — and that their entry was a surprise.
“We did not think that this would happen in captivity because it never has,” Dunkel said. “But apparently, we were wrong.”
According to the lore, this is the first time in 138 years that the groundhogs have procreated.
The average groundhog lives four to six years and up to 14 in captivity. Of course, as Dunkel and the groundhog club insist: Phil is special (Dunkel also shared with ABC27 that he has a special cane that lets him speak “Groundhogease”). He receives a special elixir to extend his life. The Philadelphia Inquirer and other news outlets have been unable to verify Phil’s age or the elixir’s legitimacy independently.
According to Dunkel, a groundhog club member discovered the babies when he visited Phil and Phyllis’ climate-controlled burrow to feed them. He added that Phil’s children will not inherit his seer of seers or prognosticator abilities because, simply, there’s only one Phil.
