An ever vigilant DOG

We're all settled into our new digs at the United Methodist Church of BRUSH, Colorado tonight.  It occurs to me that if the Hygiene UMC and the Brush UMC got together they might become more FULLY CLEAN (Fuller Brush Co.?  You know, all believers are to become more fully pure daily? Hygiene means cleanliness, which is next to Godliness, and a good brush... never mind).

Apologies for the above to Pastor's Dawnmarie and Philip.

Apologies for what comes next to everybody.

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So Mona's washing our laundry at the local Greeley, Colorado Suds & Duds and I go for a walkabout in the neighborhood when I come across a whole OTHER neighborhood!  Right between the Sonic fast food and the Human Bean Coffee drive through is an empty lot with an old for sale sign.  But I think these residents have claimed eminent domain.

Prairie Dogs have set up housekeeping EVERYWHERE.

I'm watching as I walk by and see nothing but  holes.  But some of them are pretty fresh.  In fact, as I turn my head away I feel the hairs on the back of my neck crawl and I know I'm being watched.  YES!  A quick turn and there he is.  It's Charlie at twelve o'clock. The guard dog rodent is watching me pass with those beady little eyes.  He heard my footfalls 50 feet away and none of his neighbors are coming up for air till Charlie tells them it's A-OK.

 So I take a few short steps toward his post.  Just enough to see if he will dive fast or hang out to see what's up.  He hangs.  I take a couple more steps.  He still hangs.  I take another and he ducks halfway down and jerks his tail fast.  Mortimer Dog, who just popped up out of his hole to see what the Sonic customers were dumping out of their car windows today bolted like a flash back down another hole.  Charlie's vigilance is paying off.

So now I get bolder.  Charlie is still there and I'm taking quiet but bigger strides right toward his post. He watches me for a couple of steps then some really loud chirps and such a tail flashing!  He ducks down, but not out, and I stop again.

He waits. I wait. He waits. I wait.  Then I move. One step.  Two steps.  Three... Vroom! Charlie is sending out Morse code with tail and teeth to beat the band.  I'm sure Mortimer and his fam have dug halfway to China by now!

Slam, bam, Charlie is going nuts but he doesn't leave his post.  He keeps checking around to make sure no more of his clan are following foolish Mortimer's example and thinking of their bellies instead of their hides.

 

And finally, as I take my last step toward my prey Charlie lifts his tail and hi-tails it down into the darkness where all of his kin wait to give him the Prairie Dogessional Medal of Honor for service over and above in the face of the enemy... a 64 year old retired pastor from Pennsylvania.

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So the story goes, when Meriwether Lewis wanted to capture a prairie dog alive to send back to President Jefferson in 1807 (no American had ever seen a Prairie Dog before) he had his hearty band of explorers jumping and diving all over the place chasing the little guys from hole to hole.

Finally he, or someone, figured out that all the holes were connected so they devised a plan to pour water down some and catch the dogs as they popped up elsewhere.  This worked, once,  and not only did Lewis, and Jefferson, get their live Prairie Dog, he ended up living several years, happily, apparently, in 'Peales Natural History Museum' in Philadelphia.

Read more about this wonderful story at:

http://franceshunter.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/lewis-clarks-prairie-dog-an-odyssey/

-Ken