P80610Apparently, the warnings were effective. https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2018/01/27/caution/ . They managed to avoid the traps and survive to perpetuate another generation under the lawn of Felton Covered Bridge Park. It is impossible to know if they are directly related to the now deceased Halston https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2018/04/21/halston/ who infested a landscape only about two miles away. It is unimportant. They all are intent on conquest.

Halston Junior, a baby gopher who may or may not be a descendant of the famed Halston, was found wet and shivering on the surface of the ridiculously perforated lawn. Rhody wanted to play, but was restrained from consorting with the enemy. The prisoner was detained, dried and put in one of Rhody’s blankets to recover. There was no formal interrogation, but the detainee was found to be well armed.

It is impossible to imagine what sort of damage such sharp and strong claws could inflict!P80610+

It is equally as impossible to imagine how dangerous such nasty fangs could be!P80610++

The purpose of this formidable weapon is unknown, but it is undoubtedly very dangerous!P80610+++However, the most effective weapons of all were mind control techniques. Halston Junior used them merely for self defense, by convincing his captors that he was too cute to be euthanized. It could have been much worse if he had not been so mentally compromised from his ordeal.

We knew that Halston Junior could not be released back into the lawn from which he came, but we also knew that relocating him somewhere else would disrupt the ecosystem slightly, and that Halston Junior would likely migrate back to where he came from. Ultimately, he did get released into a nearby meadow. We can only hope that the rest of the ecosystem will not notice.

Halston Junior won this battle, but not the war.

 

32 thoughts on “Halston Junior”

  2. No gophers here, but people kill poor little moles because they don’t like molehills on their lawns. Other than sports pitches, why does a patch of over-sanitised grass have to be ‘perfect’?!

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    1. Gopher volcanoes are dangerous. Someone can twist an ankle by stepping into one. Moles are not such a problem because they do not excavate so much. They just burrow below the sod layer, and let it lay back behind them. Besides, moles eat grubs that we do not want anyway. Gophers eat roots!

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  3. He’s so fluffy! It does make me glad that the most annoying pests I have to deal with are slugs and snails, and the only things trying to undermine my garden (well, the patio, anyway) are ants. I wouldn’t have the heart to get rid of a fluffball like him. (Unless it was a cat – I do not like cats in my garden!)

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  5. He’s kind of cute except for the closeup photos of claws and teeth. Hope he’s out there adding to the gopher population. We have our groundhogs that do some damage to land and occasionally crawlspaces beneath homes. Farmers (and landowners alike) love to shoot them.

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    1. Cottonwood roots and English plantain. Felton Covered Bridge Park is in the floodplain of the San Lorenzo River, and has a very high water table. The Park was developed because the area is too damp and too prone to flooding for anything to be built on it. In fact, it does not even have permanent restrooms yet, because there is no place to put a septic system. It has only those really nasty outhouses.

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  13. I wonder what happened that he allowed himself to be captured? Poor Halston Junior. I hope he went on to have a long life undisturbed somewhere in a deserted meadow. The teeth are unattractive, but, I imagine much needed for rooting about…

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    1. He was wet and cold. I believe that the ground became saturated from earlier torrential ran, and forced him to the surface, where he was succumbing to hypothermia. He warmed up rather efficiently after getting dried off, and was ready to resume his conquest.

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      4. Fortunately, they went out of style when I was a kid. Even if I were going for that Mrs. Kennedy look, I would not wear a Halston pillbox hat to work where I might be seen by any of Halston’s associates.

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  14. Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:

    If gophers can procreate annually, the gophers who torment us now may be the great grandchildren of Halston Junior, and the great great grandchildren of Halston! However, Halston must be deceased by now, and Halston Junior is either also deceased, or is very elderly after three years.

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