A new and unusual pet?????

Last night (Thursday) I was out in the back yard with the dogs. I noticed that something had been digging around our lawnmower. Thought maybe it was the dogs. Well after walking around the yard with the dogs we were headed back to the door. Bailey is stopped by the lawnmower and at first I think he is nose to nose with a squirrel....wrong!!!! It was a gopher! He wasn't afraid of anything, not the dogs, not me. Thank God the dogs didn't try to eat him. I got the dogs in the house and got Hut out to look at it. I didn't want anyone to think I was crazy and I wanted a witness. He couldn't get over how friendly the little guy was. I put him out some dry dog food and decided to see if he was still there this morning. In the meantime I looked him up on the internet. What I came up with was a "Pocket Gopher" and they are not from the South. They reside up north, mainly in Colorado. Every picture and article I could find with similiar animals all said this. So I'm wondering if this little guy was someone's pet and they let it go for some reason. He somehow managed to find his way to my house and I'll feed and water him for as long as he stays, but he will stay in the yard, I won't bring him in with the other pets. The dogs don't seem to mind him, so that's good.

Here's a full body shot of him. Isn't he just the cutest?

We had a yard sale today and he kept everyone entertained. He'd nibble on shoes and pants and even let the little kids pet him. I couldn't get over it. Of course I was busy selling so I didn't have a chance to take pictures of that. And I know I keep calling him a "he" but I'm not really sure what the sex is. I like to think he's a boy. It took us all day to come up with a name for him. I call him Buster.