Punxsutawney Phil, wife Phyllis ‘announce’ pups’ names

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. — Punxsutawney Phil and his wife Phyllis shared some big news for Mother’s Day.

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The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club announced the names of the pups of the “first family of groundhogs.”

“Today, Mother’s Day, we decided it would be a fitting day to announce the names of our new baby groundhogs that belong to Phil and Phyllis,” the organization’s vice president, Dan McGinley said, according to WTAJ.

The female’s pup is named Sunny and the male is named Shadow.

Similar to the Groundhog Day tradition of reading a scroll predicting the weather, the pups’ names were also announced via scroll.

“Here ye, hear ye, hear ye. Now, on this 12th day of May in the town of Punxsy Phil, the news is not about the weather, spring air or winter’s chill. No. Today the first family of groundhogs has grown. Punxsutawney Phil and wife, Phyllis, have two kits of their own. Born to royalty — a boy and a girl. Names have been chosen to share with the world. Welcome with us as we say hello to little girl Sunny and a boy Shadow with pride and joy as the kids play from Punxsutawney, Happy Mother’s Day.”

The group said hundreds of names were submitted to come up with what to call the kits.

“And from those suggestions, I used this cane and Phil and I talked about it and out of it, we narrowed it down to the top seven and Phil chose two from the top seven names,” club president Thomas Dunkel said, according to WTAJ.

Shadow and Sunny were born in March, WJAC reported.

The babies won’t be part of the Groundhog Day festivities because, according to WTAJ, “they did not inherit Phil’s forecasting abilities,” but the family can be visited at Phil’s Burrow at Punxsutawney Library.

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Through the years 1973 Punxsutawney, Pa.: "Punxy Phil" the King of all Weather Prophets appeared early this morning at Gobblers Knot and cast his shadow forecasting six more weeks of winter. The event has taken place every Feb. 2 for the past 89 years in Punxsutawney, The Weather Capitol of the World. (Bettmann/Bettmann Archive)

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