Moles, Voles, and Other Creatures of the Burrow

The first Fall rains in Israel bring a flush of new green growth as seeds germinate that waited through the hot dry dormancy of summer. It is a veritable explosion of lush greenery. Many small creatures that have been holed up in their burrows then come forth to sample and browse the abundant salad bar. One such hungry sleeper came out of a stone retaining wall at the rear of my garlic patch, secretly nibbled and gnawed on a tender garlic shoot, pronounced its organic goodness quite delicious, and promptly burrowed into the middle of the nearest garlic bed, a return to the "Garden of Eden."
Only after 3 plants had suddenly vanished did I know something was amiss, leaving a void in the row like the plants had never ever been there. Then a fourth garlic bulb and shoot disappeared leaving a small, but telltale hole. This was pushing the limit of hospitality and blessing and welcome: after all, they, the burrowers, do quite an admirable loosening and tilling job on the heavy soil. And the laborer does deserve his wages...
But a fifth very large plant, slowly being pulled down and seemingly swallowed by the earth, necessitated calling the curtain down on the "fifth act." Enough. That was it. Caught red-handed, the marauder was clearly developing a major appetite for organic garlic. The "trail" was easy to discern: from the burrow opening at the base of the stone wall, to a new entrance at the side of the nearby garlic bed, and thence down the row, underground, a few heaves of the soil here and there marking the tunnel, and of course the MIAs.
But how to send this grazer on to browse other pastures? Perhaps a strong flushing of this "garlic mine" would accomplish the goal? And though I do appreciate the culinary commendation of my unknown guest---no doubt an accomplished expert of healthy, tasty greens---it was time to settle the check and move on.
I am watching...
This latest story of the garlic, as I ponder it, seems to reveal some other important hidden matters. Over the last year or so, a number of people I thought were healthy, thriving "plants" in the garden of my life, just down and out disappeared. The earth just seemed to open up and "swallow" them, almost overnight, with nary a trace, just a void, like did they really exist?
Perhaps they had a hidden "burrower"---a complaint, a suppressed desire, a consuming lust, a grudge, or hidden agenda. Maybe a nettlesome thorn, an inner infection, something unbalanced and out of joint, hidden, but nevertheless actively gnawing away at their "life", whatever, it was pulling them down into a hole, a void. Then like overnight, poof, they were gone.
I wonder if a good flushing of those underground tunnels by a strong stream of live water might have saved... For sure the burrowers, hidden denizens of the underground---mole, vole, or mouse---can wreak wreck and ruin.