Prairie Dog Town – Cranky Crone News

My journalist friend Mary Jane who lives in Nebraska sent the picture included with this BLOG. One of the places she and her son have visited on their vacation is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. She has some great photographs of the area, including the one of a large prairie dog town. Daughter #3 says that it is an extensive town built by these animals. Because I’m still dealing with COVID (I thought after having a negative test, I was “over the hump,” but I was not); so, I would use my e-mail response to her photograph.

Dear Mary Jane,

Our house always had unusual pets. Well, some were actually pets. Others were just animals that lived at our house. You know, iguanas, pheasants, nine-lined ground squirrels, Eastern Corn snakes, dogs, cats, chicks hatched in the incubator, rabbits, guinea pigs – some simply are not pets, as we think of pets.

When the girls were younger (teenagers), we had a prairie dog. She came to us from the Federal Center in Jefferson County. She was the most clever pet. When a new person entered the house, she would climb up their leg and body to get a breath print from them. Then, having identified the person, she would get down and run away. We always had to tell our guests not to panic when she climbed up onto them, because as soon as she figured out who they were, she would get down.

She never needed water. She got all of her needed water from fruits like apples and vegetables like celery and lettuce. She was easy to clean up after, as well. No pee, just little turd poops.

Jane (Daughter #2) named her Wilhelmina; we called her Willie. Given a burlap bag, she would shred it and turn it into a mound – like the top mound of a burrow. She would beat it and pummel it into shape. She loved to climb on the couch. If a sweater was left on the couch, she didn’t shred it, but she did pummel it into the mound shape.

One day, I made a mistake. I was making a large table cloth with twelve napkins as a gift for Larry’s sister. The tablecloth and napkins had embroidered flowers all around. I carelessly left it on the couch, and Willie promptly started shredding it to make a mound. My mother-in-law was a great darner. She darned the holes that Willie made, and I was able to finish the set and give it to Larry’s sister for Christmas.

We didn’t realize how susceptible prairie dogs are to respiratory infections. Somebody in the family came down with a cold, and Willie became very sick, very quickly and died a few days later. We really missed her antics.

They are prey to big birds and coyotes. And, people! When a developer wants to put in some new fancy building(s), the developer destroys the burrows and kills all of the prairie dogs. It always seems unfair to me that this gentle creature’s existence is often at the will of some human person who wants to make money by destroying them and their world.

Or, in some places, they have contests to see who can kill the most prairie dogs! Why is this necessary?