My Dog, the Gopher Slayer

Imagine my surprise when I returned home from shopping, and found my five-year old golden retriever outside digging a hole. 

Koa is normally a pretty calm dog as exemplified to the right pictured with a little two-week old chick atop her head.  She has been "trained" not to dig.  But we have a mole or gopher in our backyard that has been giving her hours of something to do besides sleep.  Her daily routine usually consists of getting up around 7 am along with my middle daughter who she tends to retire with for the night.  Then she looks around for my youngest daughter who feeds her breakfast.  That's one of the main highlights of her day.  Then, after she sees everyone off to school or work, she finds a nice place to lie around and take a nap.  When it is sunny, she's often outside sunbathing.  Then, it's her job to greet everyone enthusiastically when they return home from school or work, giving them loads of tail waggings and love.  She loves to take long walks when the weather is nice, but when it's raining, we can barely manage to get her outside to do her thing.  At night, when the kids are done with homework and baths, she gets to relax while we watch TV and get a nice brushing with her Furminator.  She LOVES that.  Then, it's time to go to bed and start the routine all over again.

It's been raining quite a bit these past few weeks.  Today was a relatively dry day compared to the many days of pelting rain we've been getting in Northern California.  So Koa must have needed some outside time because when I came home from my errands, she was not in her usual napping spot.  That's when I found her, digging away like a long lost bone must have been rediscovered!

When I went out to inspect the damage, to my utter horror was a dead -- something!  It did not have a long tail, so I'm ruling out a mouse or rat.  It did not have those weird, two-inch long teeth that moles have.  So my guess is she got a gopher.  The rain must have driven it out of its underground hole, and there were mounds of dirt where the gopher residence was. 

To celebrate, we're giving Koa a nice spa treatment at PetSmart.  Nails and all.  Good job, Koa!