Gophers Ate My Bougainvillea, Which Had Survived Highway Fumes for 23 Years

My bougainvillea had seasons.  Bougainvilleas do that.  So I wasn't alarmed when, after flourishing in August and the months before

, it went "dormant."  I knew it would bloom again soon, and it did.  In October I saw new flowers, and on October 28, I took a picture of the renewed bougainvillea blossoms on my balcony.

But I should have paid more attention to mounds of dirt around the wooden structure--call it an enormous pot-- the bougainvillea was sitting in. 

The newly-blooming bougainvillea stopped blooming and I saw this:

Yesterday a gardener came and confirmed the bad news.  Gophers had eaten the roots.  Only one vine was still living.  

Why after all these years--23!--did the gophers go for it? Were they particularly hungry this year?  Were they roaming into new-to-them territory like the cougars, mountain lions, and coyotes in San Francisco?

I think of those fairy tales, where Red Riding Hood's grandmother can be brought back whole from the belly of the wolf.  There's Jonah, swallowed by a whale.  I don't really want to split open a gopher to rescue my beloved plant, but why couldn't the gopher just  repent and regurgitate, bringing the bougainvillea roots back intact and ready to go again?