Sparkle

I am determined that a pesky little critter the size of a penis will not get the best of me.

Yes, I refer to the gopher - that infuriating, beady-eyed rodent.

My heart stopped when I spotted that first heinous dirt mound near my prize-winning Kehr Hybrid azalea bushes in

my meticulously manicured front yard. My busybody neighbor informed me the peculiar mound is due to a gopher.

“They can really destroy a lawn. Ha, Ha, Ha…” he needled me.

The stress and irritation of this creature invasion has catapulted me into a crisis:

Blood pressure higher than a kytoon, sleep tortured by ghosts of gophers past, present, and future, dirt-filled

fingernails gnawed to the bone, digestion disrupted, mental faculties in disarray, martini consumption and

general crankiness escalating off the charts.

I repeat. I am determined that a pesky little critter the size of a penis will not get the best of me.Being a thinking person at least occasionally, I pursue sound, logical approaches to the problem:

Trapping with artisan cheese
Flooding by garden hose
Water boarding
Smoke bombs
Elaborate fencing
Sonar repeller rods (a regrettable purchase from the captivating but essentially useless Sky Mall Catalog)
Death by dog (sicking our aging beagle Flopsie on the vile little bugger)
100% Organic, gold-lined chemicals designed to euthanize the prickly pest (special precautions taken so I don’t kill my beloved cat… even though he treats me with all the respect offered a convicted sex offender)
Blasting mezzo-soprano Whitney Houston classics into the tunnel. Perhaps the piercing high notes will call him to Jesus?
Creative visualization – I imagine the gopher as road kill on my local interstate.

Nothing works. I resort to sniveling, cajoling, begging, and sobbing. However, this hurts me with the kids as they sense incompetence and despair faster than they can hit the local “all-you-can-eat buffet.”After five weeks of soul numbing failure to exterminate the furry little Fuhrer, I succumb to a pitcher of Orange Blossom (heavy on the sweet Vermouth) for divine inspiration. Voila. I am struck with an answer so counter-intuitive yet brilliantly simple I want to scream.Go with a Zen approach. Just "go for it." Ohm. Peace envelops my entire being. Ohm. Ohm.I accept you, oh measly gopher. Ohm.Ohm. Ohm.I am now “one” with my fuzzy friend. Amen.