Lost mole in the afternoon

I was next to the dumpster talking to my neighbor, when this little furry animal waddled by. It was a confused mole looking for dirt to tunnel in. He was on a road searching with his nose where his tunnels were. The local lawn service had dug holes in the ground, disrupting him.

The mole was a common mole, soft fur and a needle nose. His feed were big flat digging machines. He sort of waddled and twisted away. I picked him up and moved him to the grass.

Then I spent the afternoon making sure he found his way home. He did and I went home.

I marveled at the wonder of this little animal, soft to the touch, sniffing his way in the grass. Occasionally eating a tiny insect to keep his strength up. He seemed like a fairy from some other place who came for a visit.

Forest Preserve District of Cook County (Illinois)

Few people have ever seen a mole. That's because this strange animal
lives its entire life underground and is rarely dragged out into the light
of day. Sometimes we see those long, meandering ridges that it pushes
up in lawns and gardens but most of us have no idea what the creature
looks like.

The animal literally "swims" through the soil in its search for food. The
hands are brought forward alongside the snout, then thrust outward and
backward in a breast stroke, pushing the soil aside and pulling the
animal forward.

This industrious, hard-working animal has an enormous appetite. It has been reported to eat the equivalent of its own weight in food in a day,
but one-third of its weight is more probably an average amount. The
bulk of the diet consists of earthworms, white grubs, cutworms,
wireworms, and other insects.

Some of the folk lore meanings of moles are, "Depth, sensory perception, touch, earth wisdom, cheer, healing with roots, spiritual healing, self reliance, luck, Retrieval."
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