The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1893-09-30
TOMMY. THE GOPHER.
Mistssy ~ Quecr Little Oacs Pct ana
Compani0a.


Tommy was pet gopher, and, like
other pets, had his little history. He
came to rs in . very remarkable way.
/ was sitting IN my office, in the third
story Of one Of those big office build
ings in the city, when one Of the Office
girls exclaimed: "What Is thatT point
ine 10 . little animal about the size of
: rat, running in At the door. II It. had
been . rat we should not have been
surprised, as they were common; but
this little fellow had bushy tail, and
rows Of spots along his back, and ears
hardly visible above his fur. knew
him ut once, for had seen plenty Of
his kind ON our prairie farm when l was
. boy, and used to dig them ont Of their
holes in the ground, or drown them out
By pouring in water, as they scratched
up our seed corn. But how this little
fellow could have got into the
city. and up into the third story of
Of an Office building was q mystery.
Evidently some one had brought him
in; but no one in the building knew
anything about him, so as he seemed
quite tame, 1t was decided to adopt him
~ an Office pet, and he was named
Tommy. And as nature had provided
him with . nice suit Of clothes, all he
needed was food, drink and nest.
We soon found that he liked peanuts,
and II was great fun to see him cat
them. When anyone called, Tommy,
Tommy" and held out peanut, he
would run and sit up On his hind feet,
reach out his little pawn, and beg for
his peanut, When he got it he would
shell 1t, put the kernel into his pocket,
and hold up his paws for another, and
when he got both pockets full, he
would run OF to his nest, store away
his nuts. and come back for more.
Now your will wonder about his
pockets. Wsll. every gopher has twn
pockets, one IN each cheek, in which he
carries food and bedding TO his nest.
He makes his nest in hole in the
ground, which he digs out with his
paws, putting the earth into his pock-
cts and carrying it out knew that
our Tommy would want such nest, so
! got . large box and filed it with
earth for him. packing it in tight.
Tommy Ient vigorously to work, and
soon had a. cosey little room dug out
in the bottom, just big enough for him.
self, with winding passage down to
Il, where he made a nest Of bits OF ~
per and cloth and Irvine, picked up
round the Office.
When it was finished, Tommy's de-
mands for peanuts increased, and he
aeon laid in large supply. 1t was
nmssiRg 70 rec him hold up his paws
and beg, as II he were very hungry.
when his pockets were so full OF kerr
nels that his cheeks were pulled out.
II we gave him q nut that had no kerr
mel, he would get very angry. spring
ing 1T the hand of the person who gave
It. and biting it II he got chance.
One day he found = satchel in which
there was some cake; SO he gnawed a
hole in it. and was soon inside helping
himself. We wondered where he had
gone, when some one happened to no.
tice the satchel, and saw Tommy peer
ing out through the hole, which was
Just big enough TO fit his head. "a
He had large black eyes, but his
sight did not seem to be sharp-proba-
bly, because his eyes were better adapt
ed TO the dim light of life under
ground than to Che bright sunlight
and he was afraid of objects which he
could not see clearly; the dust-brush,
which he evidently regarded as some
big burly animal, was an object of cs-
pecial terror to him, and he would act
like cat frightened by dog when it
was placed near him. You should
know that every animal has little
curtain inside of his eye. called
the iris. with window in the
middle Of it. called the pupil. around
which is q muscle which contracts,
making the window smaller when the
light Is bright, and expands. making
It larger. when the light is dim. You
have often seen the pupils II pussys
eyes get small in the light and large in
the dark, SO that she can see almost as
well by dim light as by bright one.
But as gophcrs do not live much in the
daylight. their eyes have large pupils
adapted to semi-darkness.
Tommy liked to lie and bask in a
warm, sunny spot on the floor, inst as
you have seen puss do. He became
quite tame, and would sometimes climb
mp and sit on my knee; but he would
not allow anyone to touch him or
stroke him, and always resented any
such famili,.rity by his peculiar little
ocO1ding chir-r-r, or an attempt to bite.