GORDONVILLE MAN WONDERS WHAT TO DO WITH WAYWARD ARMADILLO

GORDONVILLE -- Don Rodgers has seen a few armadillos in the zoo and in books, but he never expected to find one in his back yard.

"My oldest daughter saw it first, and she didn't know what it was," said Rodgers. "She called her mother, and her mother called me.

"I just walked on out, and there it was, digging a hole in my back yard under the rabbit hutch," he said. "It was about the damndest thing I ever saw."

Rodgers bent over and picked the burrowing critter up by the tail, placing it in a vacant rabbit hutch. It was the first armadillo he had ever seen in this part of the country.

That was Saturday. On Wednesday, Rodgers was still trying to figure out what to do with his thick-skinned friend.

"We're not keeping it as a pet," he said, with an air of confidence. "We literally have a zoo out there now with the cats, dogs, ducks, pigs, turkeys, a rabbit and all the other animals my kids keep. We don't need an armadillo."

Besides, Rodgers said, the winters are too severe for the animal, which is typically found in Southwest.

"I talked to someone with the Missouri Department of Conservation that had heard about armadillo sightings in the area, but had never actually seen one," he said. "They are warm-weather animals, and they're not supposed to be common in parts much north of Mississippi."

Rodgers was hoping the conservation department would take the animal off his hands, but he hasn't heard back from them.

"I don't know that we'll keep it too much longer," he said. "You hate to set it free, because if someone just dumped it here or something, you just know it won't make it through the winter.

"We might drive on south and let it go in a warmer climate," he said. "Just what do you do with an armadillo?"

Right now, Rodgers and his family are doing their best to feed it. The wayward animal eats a diet of bugs, worms and small snakes.

"I'm not catching any snakes for it," he said. "I have my kids on bug patrol right now, rounding up dinner for our guest."

Over the weekend, several of Rodgers' friends came to see his catch.

"No matter what happens to the armadillo, this is definitely something we're going to be talking about for a long time," said Rodgers. "You can bank on that."