Seminary Visitor

As you probably know, for the last four years I have taught an early morning religious class to teenagers. (See http://www.mormon.org/ if you want to learn more.) This class took place in our basement. On one of the last days of class we had an uninvited and unexpected visitor. We kept seeing small movements outside the basement window but I thought that it was probably just the light was moving through the trees. But then suddenly, a small mole plastered himself against the window. One of the girls was late so we pointed out our visitor to her as she came downstairs. Her glance was followed by screaming and running. Clearly, I had now lost control of the class. The mole continued to jump at the window, run around in circles, try again to tunnel his way out, and then start over again with the window jumping. We eventually decided that we should move upstairs because nobody could pay attention.



I am not a small mammal fan. If it's furry and tiny, I pretty much despise it. We won't even talk about my fear of mice. But this poor mole had to be rescued so I reminded Mike of our prenup (he will take care of all creatures, dead or alive). He smiled at me, sat on the couch, ate his yogurt and left for work. He was clearly not going to be this mole's rescuer.

Not wanting to touch or go anywhere near this surprisingly mouse like creature I put a board in the window well so it could climb out all by himself (or herself?). No luck, he couldn't get a good enough grip. So I needed a new plan, one that still didn't involve touching him. I knew I couldn't just drop a bucket over the top of him because he would just immediately burrow underground. My genius plan was to take a pot filled with dirt and lay it on its side next to him. He immediately must have sensed fresh dirt that he hadn't tried yet so he went right into the bucket of dirt and started burrowing his way to the bottom of the pot. I just picked it up brought it over to the woods and laid it down on its side and waited for him to turn around. I kept hearing frantic scraping at the bottom of the pot so I dumped it upside down and he was free. No touching required but certainly closer than I had ever wanted to be.



On a side note, I have been released as a seminary teacher. It was a great four years and I thoroughly enjoyed both the teaching and my amazing students. I am optimistically hopeful though that this will mean at least a little extra time in my schedule.