It was probably unkind of me to laugh as hard as I did when my neighbor called me to his backyard to show me the rodent super highway system etched into his lawn sometime between the first snow and the last melt.
This is a man who once confessed that were it not for the family obligations that drive him to the office every day, he would stay home and trim his grass with manicure scissors.
He was legitimately aggrieved when the drifts melted away last month to reveal that Mousa Verde had been constructed along a garden rock wall, with an intricate network of vole footpaths fanning out toward the marshy open space beyond.
But who really can blame the native voles for carving thatchy runways from nest to food and water in deepest winter? Depending on where you read, voles are tight family animals (some species are monogamous). They defend their homes against predators and feed themselves and their young in winter from stockpiles of grasses stored in the burrow.
At their essence, the tiny voles are not so different from my neighbor, who has provided a safe and loving home for his family, doing what he must to keep his kids warm and fed, even if it means sacrificing the lawn. Dana Coffield, The Denver Post
