SHORELINES

7 a p c s hor e l i n e s.c om | 2015 Vol :1 Found in the middle of the road by Smith Lake: A mystery critter. Description: A furry ball, eyes barely open, the size of a tea cup. The call: "You've got to come right away," Ginger Whitworth's sister, Cyndi, said by cellphone that day. "I don't know what this is but I know you don't have one." No, Ginger Whitworth didn't have one – a baby groundhog, as it turned out – but the unofficial Dr. Doolittle of Smith Lake rushed to the scene with her ever-ready bottle of goat milk and named "it" Smith Lake Jake. In the seven years since that day, Smith Lake Jake has leapt to stardom, not just with annual Feb. 2 weather predictions, but for year-round activities. Whitworth and her husband, Heath, specialize in guiding Jake's steps to celebrity status. At first Jake was just another critter to be helped – and things might have stayed calm if Birmingham's FOX 6 hadn't heard about him and offered the spotlight on Groundhog Day when he was a mere child, not yet a year old. The critter might have languished at the Whitworth's Graysville home, taking periodic holidays to their place on his namesake lake. But the call did come and Smith Lake Jake's comments, artfully translated by his witty "human mother," were a hit. Libraries and schools sent requests, the Birmingham Suzuki dealership invited him to be a spokes-groundhog and do infomercials, a local politician wanted his endorsement, the Birmingham Zoo made him the centerpiece of its own Feb. 2 celebration, and so on. "I'm a very private person, not so much a people person as a critter person," says Whitworth, whose yard often becomes a dropping place for animals in need. "We've always had dogs and then when squirrels fell out of trees, I'd bottle-feed them every three hours for six to eight months because it takes so long to get their eyes open. Then I'd put them back out in the yard. I couldn't let them die." The fact is, Whitworth can't say no and doesn't want to. Smith Lake Jake's "sibling" list is long and the Whitworth house is warmly Left: Photo by k arim shamsi-Basha — Smith Lake Jake, a fixture on Smith Lake, is nationally known for his annual Feb. 2 predictions. Above Right: Photo by k arim shamsi-Basha — Smith Lake Jake was rescued by the Whitworth family along a road at Smith Lake and now resides with them in Graysville.

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