Gopher Gopher

Well my church search was quick and easy. I've found a church in CO that I like. The church is Bethel Presbyterian and they, like my church in Champaign, meet in a high school except that the high school Bethel meets in has an auditorium with nice seats that don't need picked up every week. I've gone for two weeks and have very much enjoyed the people and the preaching. The preacher is quite a guy. Always smiling and is so animated.

The people are also very good at fellowship and a few families each week invite others over to their house for lunch and more fellowship until their evening service. Yesterday one family had an open invite to anyone who wanted to come. They served pb&j and lunchmeat sandwiches and chips and the rest of the stuff you associate with that kind of meal.

While we were eating I believe it was the family's little girl Caroline that spotted a gopher that had gotten into this family's yard. Because they had a garden in their yard they wanted to get the gopher out fearing that it might mess the garden up. Oh was it hilarious to see 4 little boys around 8-10 years old (I believe) chasing a gopher that can run really fast around a 100 foot fence encompassing the yard. The goal was to get the gopher out a gate since it couldn't seem to find a hole to duck out of quickly. They managed to get it close to the gate but then it ran off the other way obviously not knowing how to get out. After chasing it around the yard a couple times they scared it toward a window well (hole in the ground around a basement window to let light in) unintentionally and it fell down through the grate that was over it. The father didn't know what to do then. He didn't want to kill it and didn't know how to get it out.

Enter the hero...!

He thought I was crazy and obviously wasn't real sure about me risking the animal getting into the house. He said he didn't think I would be able to do it, but I told him that all I needed was a box. We went down to the basement and the window well was quite deep (4 feet or so) so that the window was at waist height on the bottom. The gopher was scared stiff and wasnt moving so it was really easy to take one of the two windows out (Couldnt have been easier, it was at least a 3'X3' opening in the wall) to be able to move the box into the window well. I pushed the box out and slid it under the gopher. Coerced him toward the other window still in place to trap him in the corner and be able to see him. He tried to jump up the window but the box was big enough to keep him within the confines and eventually he fell into the box itself at which point I closed the lid. It was screaming quite a bit as I walked up the stairs and out the door with him. This whole time the father has been video taping me and just "wowing" in amazement that I was able to get him in. Walking down the street with a "screaming box" and the father walking backwards in front of me I carried the gopher to a large ditch that collected all the runoff from the subdivision and let the gopher out down a culvert. Really wasn't that big of a deal but everyone including a vet that was also there, was amazed. What a time.

So I guess I'll be somewhat of a celebrity over the summer and if I come back after my fall semester I'll be able to have a story to tell to remind everyone who I am.

--Gregory