The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-11-30
TOMMY, THE GOPHER.
History of a Queer Little Omce Pet an,
Companion.

history OF Queer Little Office Pet and
Companion.
Tommy was pet gopher, and, like
other pets, had his little history. lie
came to us in a very remarlla BILE 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 that?" point
ing to a little animal about the size of
rat, running in at the door. If it had
been rat we should not have been
surprised, as they were common; but
this little fellow had a bushy tail. and
rows of spots along his back, and ears
hardly visible above his fur. | knew
him at once, for | had seen plenty of
his kind on our prairie farm when was
boy, and used to dig them out 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 mystery.
Evidently some one had brought him
in; but no one in the building knew
anything about him. so as he seemed
quite tame, it was decided to adopt him
as 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 "A nest.
We soon found that he liked peanuts
nnd 1T was great fun to see him eat
them. When anyone called, Tommy,
Tommy" and held out a peanut, he
would run and sit up on his hind feet,
reach out his little paws. and beg for
his peanut. When he got it he would
shell it, put the kernel into his pocket.
and hold up his paws for another, and
when he got both pockets full, he
would run off to his nest, store away
his nuts, and come back for more.
Now your will wonder about his
pockets. Well, every gopher has two
pockets, one in each check, 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 pocls-
cts and carrying it out. knew that
our Tommy would want such nest. so
1 got . large box and filed it with
earth for him, packing it in tight
Tommy wcat vigorously to work, and
soon had II cosey little room dug out
in the bottom, Just big enough for him
self, with winding passage down to
1t, where he made "a nest of bits of pa
per and cloth and twine. picked up
round the Office.
When it was finished, Tommy's de.
mands for peanuts increased, and he
soon laid in II large supply. 1t was
amusing to see him hold up his paws
and beg, as if he We're very hungry
when his pockets We're so full of ker.
nels that his cheeks were puffed out.
IL we gave him a nut that had no kerr
mel, he would get very angry, spring
Ing at this hand OF the person who gave
1t, and biting it if he got chance
One day he found a satchel in which
there was some cake; so he gnawed
hole i'll it, and was soon inside helping
himself. We wondered where he had
gone, when some one happened to no.
tce the satchel, and saw Tommy peer
ing ont through the hole, which was
just big enough to fit his head.
He had large black eyes, but his
sight did not seem to be sharp-proba-
bly, because his eyes We're better adapt
ed to the dim light of a life under
ground than to the 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 es-
pccial 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 "A little
curtain inside of his eye, called
the iris, with II window in the
middle of it, called the pupil, around
which is a muscle which contracts.
making the window smaller when the
light is bright, and expands, making
1t larger, when the light is dim. You
have often seen the pupils if pussy's
eyes get small in the light and large in
the dark, so that she can see almost as
well by q dim light as by a bright one.
But as gophers do not live much in the
daylight, their eyes have large pupils
adapted to semi-darl<ness.
Tommy liked to lie and bask in
warm, sunny spot on the floor, Just as
you have seen puss do He became
quite tame, and would sometimes climb
up and sit on my knee: but he would
not allow anyone to touch him or
stroke bim and always resented apy
such familiarity by his peculiar little
scolding chir-r-r, or an attempt to bite.
About the middle of summer he dis
appeared, and could not be found any,
where; and his odd little ways had
made him such pet that he was great
ly missed We knew he could not have
left the Office, and so concluded he
must 10 in his nest, but whether dead
or alive no one knew. So when six
weeks had passed, and he did not make
his appearance, we empted the earth