Backyard Mammalian Visitor

Around 2-3:00PM this afternoon, I let Pete out to do his business, and when I went to let him back in, I found him sniffing a little brown ball of fur on the fence line between our house and the Great Dane neighbor's house.

I thought it was a bunny. I love bunnies! I rushed over, iPhone in hand and video recording, to find, well, I didn't know what it was. 

But it was NOT a rabbit! 

Pete was confused.

I had no clue what it was at first! I thought it might be a mole. I've never seen a mole in person.  I sent the video to Chris and my friend Danielle, and neither one of them knew. 

Then I realized, I have a wildlife biologist for a brother! Duh! So I sent him a picture, and he was instantly able to tell me what I had: 

A GOPHER!

He called it a pocket gopher. And, surprisingly, it's an adult. I thought it was a baby because it so little. (I thought gophers were more groundhog size... can you tell I have not seen Caddyshack? Or a gopher, apparently.)

Danielle rushed over to our house to see it, and I ended up putting it in a plastic planter and using a plastic mixing bowl for the lid. 

Surprisingly, it didn't try to run from us or Pete. At one point, it was just sitting in the backyard munching on some weeds. 

Gopher and capture device

Danielle and I ended up taking it to a wildlife rescue center the next town over. They rehabilitate lots of squirrels, raccoons, and rabbits in addition to other animals. I saw my first Saint Bernard in person (according to memory, which seems rather faulty recently), and they had a kid in a cage! A goat kid, of course. It was really cute, and the worker there said it was probably 4-5 months old.

Gopher in the wildlife rescue container 

On the way back, I remembered I have another wildlife specialist in my friends/family, and I sent pictures and video to my friend Loma. He called and said we did the right thing to get the gopher out of the yard and take it to the wildlife center, but due to its behavior, it was likely the gopher had been poisoned.

Since gophers are often pests, I wouldn't be surprised, but I do hope this ugly little cute thing will be OK. After my adventure with Danielle today, though, I would hate to hear that it died.