10 hours ago, Smithy said:There's a prairie dog town across the field.
Growing up on a farm in Nebraska, we had a prairie dog town on a little hill in our pasture. As children, we spent many hours at the crest of that hill watching them play and stop to talk to each other in their happy little chirps.
One day as my brother was watching them, a mother brought out a little group of pups and when she returned to the borough, she left one behind. My brother put it in his pocket and brought it home. It was only a few weeks old and could just barely walk so we really didn't have much hope that it would live. But we took turns with an eye dropper and through some miracle we pulled it through and added a fascinating, pampered little critter to our family.
Not being conversant with prairie dog Anatomy, we never did figure out whether it was a he or she but we named it Buster and he was with us for about 5 years. I could probably write a book about life with Buster.
In the extreme Nebraska summers, prairie dogs are able to go below ground and stay cool so Buster could not stand the heat in the house. Our cellar door was the type that laid flat on the floor of our porch and my brother-in-law cut a hole so Buster could go into the cellar and stay cool. We used to say that we were the only house in the state that had a prairie dog hole in our porch. Another consideration was that prairie dogs hibernate in the winter and only come out during warm days. My mother made Buster an insulated box lined with sheepskin to put in the cellar for him to hibernate. We had a big old shaggy shepherd type dog with a heavy undercoat and when winter was coming, Buster would comb out that undercoat and use it to line his nest. That big old dog would lay like a statue while that little mite would rob him of his winter coat.
As I said, I could write a book, but appreciate your little neighbors. They're fascinating creatures.
