A Gutsy Visitor

I snapped this picture from inside the house,since I knew the least little movement would have scared the visitor off.We have watched him or her or their relatives, scurrying around the property all summer, but they have never come this close to the house. The apple tree is approximately 30 feet from the porch.I was able to get two or three pictures before he scurried off,under one of my sheds.Once more, desperate times call for desperate measures. With the dry weather we have been having, food for these critters, must be scarce.I had picked up a few buckets of apples from the ground just this week, and noticed teeth marks on a few, but never suspected a ground hog.Possibly a squirrel,a rabbit or even a ground squirrel, but never a ground hog.
Pop usually shoots groundhogs for all the neighbors, since they can reek havoc around a barn, grain bin, or an outbuilding of any kind. They are extremely ferocious diggers.Since they had not been coming that close to the house, Pop and I usually just sit and watch them when they visit our property.Usually they will come out and forage on whatever they can find that appeals to them, then when they sense the slightest movement anywhere near them, they'll scurry off, back into their den,which is usually in a nearby sinkhole.Pop says if the critter has taken up housekeeping under the shed,we may be forced to break up their happy home, and I doubt he means to humanely capture and relocate him.