Gracie is a great lizard hunter. That has long been her title.

George has the title of great tennis ball chaser.

Going outside was an adventure for them both. But the coming of Spring after heavy winter rains created new vistas for these running balls of fluff.

First, they are no longer fluffy. The huge swathes of foxtails advanced their shave down date by a couple of months. With no fluff to hang onto the foxtails must exert more energy to cling to a moving Cocker Spaniel. Most of them are too lazy.

But, not being ones to court danger, the pups have been banned from the dog run until the weed-whacking and mowing chores have been completed. It was a bit of a shock that they didn’t seem to mind. But they did have the entire area around the house that we had just fenced.

Then we found Gracie, very busy tail in the air, her head down a hole and a pile of dirt rising behind her as she rapidly clawed at the earth. She has never been a digger so we carefully approached and found.

A GOPHER HOLE! In the newly fenced area. Just one hole. It will go away with the Gracie on the prowl. Right?

Wrong.

The entire front yard (and some of the back) has turned into a rerun of the Caddy Shack!

You see, our ‘Super Bloom’ was a tad later than the one advertised on the media. We didn’t have to travel anywhere to see the wildflowers spawned by the heavy rains. It was in our front yard.

However, Mr. Gopher saw munchies.

And Gracie saw him.

See that brown mound outside the fence. Two seconds before I snapped this Mr. Gopher was there, chomping on a blade of grass and Gracie was in a point position. Timing is everything. I actually tried to get him in the frame but he would not come back. At least to that hole.

The most amazing thing about all of this (I mean really, I live in the middle of nowhere and the gophers were here first), is that George is no longer chasing his tennis balls with the same obsession. He actually puts the ball down and is sniffing the ground for gopher tunnels. He hasn’t done the digging. Just the finding.

So here is to our Gopher Spring.

And here is to tired pups. Give them ten minutes, they will want out again!