What's in that hole?

Here's T Cat watching a hole. He at least, had the good sense of not trying to go in. This is in a ridge of fault gouge along the San Andreas Fault, all clay and fairly easy for some critter to dig a burrow. The approach has been excavated by rain, forming that gully, and it wasn't easy to tell if someone was home.

A few years ago I was here with Cucumber as field assistant. She's T Cat's little sister, and she fit in that hole perfectly. Back then, there wasn't any gully, just the hole and a pile of fresh excavations out front.

I found her with just her tail sticking out, and grabbed it. It seemed likely that whatever did the tunneling, which was fresh, had a nifty cavern where it could turn around and attack any intruder. Cucumber, however, would have to back up, and I wasn't taking any chances. She backed out as I pulled. Here she is, on a different trip, when a motorcycle went by. "I think I'll jump in right now!"

These two field assistants come along, one at a time, on collecting trips. They both jump in the van when I'm ready to leave and I ring a bell, or when a motorcycle approaches.