Tika Digs Persistence

It's that time of year again: pocket gopher time! Those darling pesky little critters are out of sight but everywhere...... at least according to Tika. She smells and/or hears them everywhere and if I leave her long enough in one place she will dig after them. She cannot catch them (don't think) but boy can she dig a crater and make a minefield of the area within the circumference of her leash. And then I must bath her :-( 

But her perception and dedication and persistence is a great example to me. Do I "listen" for clues as to where to find those pesky out-of-sight ancestors? When I "find the right spot" do I dig and dig to find them or do I just scratch amongst the weeds and give up?

My Handy Man has a Smith line (as do we all and likely more than one). His is Charles Smith, son of John Smith, son of John Smith, son of William Smith. And I despaired of EVER figuring out that line (from Virginia, of course). But every so often I'd pick it up again and "dig a hole" and guess what?  Last December while "digging" this problem again, I found Herb D. whose late wife was of this line and who was now wanting to share all her work with any and all descendants. What a blessing to me. He sent me a CD with all the answers and the documentation and my Smith problem is resolved.

Tika asked: "Did you catch him?"  Well, sort of, I answered.