yes, this definitely was the gopher's lucky day!
Oh, no. One of the cats brought him in, and accidentally dropped it. It ran under the plant. We have a Critter Box (a cardboard box where we regularly capture lizards and rodents that the cats have brought in) so I laid the box on its side and pushed the gopher into it with a broom, and then took it back outside. His lucky day that I happened to be home when the cats brought him in.