Oh, And the Prairie Dogs Are Back, Too

Prairie dogs from the Wiki

The horses and cattle are mostly gone these days. There's been no almost rain, so there is nothing in the fields for them any more. Cattle were being run on the range nearby, but only for a couple of days. There were three horses pasturing reasonably well on about 70 acres through the winter, but the past few weeks have been so dry they've eaten the stubble down to bare ground. They were starting to look pretty bad, too. First one was gone, then another. Finally, on Monday, the last one was gone. Don't know where they've gone to, but these horses have been pasturing on this land for years now, so I imagine they've been moved up north where at least there is something to eat. Or they might have been brought into the barn and are being fed hay -- as is the case with most of the cattle that are still being raised in these parts.

But the prairie dogs that I thought had been removed from their plot over by the community center re-appeared in April, and they've expanded their territory quite a bit. Not only are they skittering around their original town site, they've expanded across the road, and I've even seen them in fields near our place and in the horse pasture. They keep their areas very clean and neat, free of the trash that so often gets blown around by the wind. And they're cute.

They need to learn to stay away from the roads, however. For whatever reason, they seem to love to play in traffic.