Tough Year

We hear tell how you two-footed folks have been having a rough time topside what with the economy and all. Well, let me tell you; it's been no picnic around the Pdog town this year either. I give it up in early October and put in for early hibernation. Glad to see that ol' year gone.

First off, you know there's no prairie dogs in Kingfisher County. Well, not official-like, anyhow. Ol' Mr. Farmer K and my buddies, we've got us this agreement. He don't tell folks we're underfoot and, well, we just don't get underfoot. Keep the burrows at fair to middlin', don't get greedy for forage, that kinda thing. Stay outta his hair.

It works out good for us, too, don't you know? Most ol' boys got three or four Pdog Mamas keepin' 'em in line. Me, I just got the one and all the pups. But, you see, it's them pups that got us into hot water. We've had us some good size litters these last two years, got powerful crowded below ground. I'm digging and tunnelin' and doin' my dead level best to keep the hills few and far between and all the time it's gettin' more and more crowded. Them older pups growed like turnips in the rain and they's startin' to get downright snarly. It were pert obvious somethin' had to change.

Long about May or there'bouts, by your kinda reckonin', I get up one morning and, lo and behold, no pups. No big 'uns anyhow. It's dern quiet down below. Those boys had took off in the night and gone out to the edge of town and dug up ol' Farmer K's back pasture for a prairie dog town. Now there's several things wrong with that move. First off, it puts Farmer K in mind of us when we'd just as soon lay low. Second, those boys built in his canola field and he was gettin' mighty close to harvest. First year for him to try it, canola, and he was pretty touchy about interference.

We knew we was in trouble but figured that those boys'd come on back to town when the machinery started runnin' in that field. They know what machinery'll do to a Pdog. But we never figured on the deer. You see, deer seem to dearly love that canola, come in the night and chow down by the dark of the moon, but they hadn't made much headway in that field, hadn't got Farmer K's dander up none, though he sure didn't like 'em out there.

Those young pups came out curious one of them nights, wanted to see what those big bucks were up to. Derned if they weren't up to chasin' prairie dogs. I tell you it t'were awful, the slippin' and sliding, the squeals and snortin', the downright devastation. Looked like a war zone before it was over. Bent stalks, tore up dirt. You just wouldn't believe what a few Pdogs and a deer or two or three can do.

I thought we were done for fer sure. Farmer K was boilin', got out his tractor and plow and came after our town. Just tore it up bad and him a'swearin' all along. Nobody hurt but we was refugees. I can tell you it were a sad sight to see, all these little Pdogs with their belongings tied in bundles on their backs hitch-hikin' down the road. Didn't know where we was goin' and weren't sure where we was when we got there. Ain't about to tell you where we ended up. Life's just that way.

Anyhow, we's settled now and I 'spect them young 'uns'll never do nothin' that foolish again, but there's a whole new crop of pups comin' up behind them and, you know, it's just out there to be done over again. You can tell 'em the tale as many times as you please, but they always gotta learn it for theirselves.

Crow Pie

Well now, consarn it, can't a feller be wrong ever now and then? I mean, this ol' Pdog is just a regular critter like the rest of y'all, you know? I guess that extra long fall threw me off my form just a bit, confused me like, maybe. Mama Pdog is just makin' me miserable over it. Didn't even hibernate this year. Just stayed up and played with the pups 'til the snow hit and then had to wake me up to point out just how wrong I could be. Danged females anyway.

This Okie weather is one for the books. First, that derned Christmas Eve snow and now this dagnabbit Spring Blizzard. Makes me just feel foolish, don't you know? And I didn't get much shut-eye this winter neither. Pups tumblin' over one another, Mama Pdog off in a huff, last year's babies anxious to get out on their own--makes for one crowded Pdog hole, I can tell you.

But, I gotta say that the crocus was bloomin' in January and the birds was all come back from down south, so I weren't the only one to get it wrong. I tol' Ma that spring really did come early, it was just those cold snaps I predicted all got together to make me look bad.

She just asked me how I'd like my slice of crow pie.

Brrrrr....

Oh, man! This is just what happens when you don't get down to the business of hibernating early on. It has been just double-dog cold down the pdog hole. That extra long warm fall caught us all unawares, you know? Sunny days and warm nights. Couldn't pass up those extra seeds and grasses. Got plum fat. Mama Pdog had got all soft and round and I'll be darned if I wasn't feelin' pretty mellow, then Ouch! Down went them temps like a deflated balloon and here I sit wide-awake and freezin'. Shoulda sacked out when I had the chance.

Mrs. Pdog has taken a notion that she wants a Christmas tree like those two-legged critters up topside. Where does she get such foolish ideas, I wonder? She's drug in some sticks of red cedar and stuck some berries or something all over. Just makes me itchy. Think I've got me one of them prairie doggone allergies. Dang rash just under the fur. Makes me powerful testy.

Tol' the missus that she could stay up all winter if she had a mind to, but, me? I'm burnin' daylight and gotta hit the sack.

Y'all stay warm this winter, now. Drive careful when the ice hits. Always does, you know. I'll be up before that Punxsutawney fellow and tell you just what I think about next year's spring, but right now I'm takin' my itchy little body down deep and chasin' me a nap!

Uh oh--Where'd the Summer Go?

Gotta tell you, it's been a quiet summer down the pdog hole. Dern hot to start with. Just laid around and cooked for days. For sure, you could smell simmering pdog all round the town. Even the hawks headed for shade and we weren't too sure but the end was on its way.

'Course I told folks they didn't have to worry. All things pass, even scorchers under the sun. And sure enough, we've got them autumn rains freshenin' up everything now. Roses are puttin' on their last flashes of bloom and the grasses are growin' tall and sweet. It's a good time, time for takin' stock, you know? Totin' up the summer and checkin' the storerooms.

I'm telling you, this ol' boy didn't get a whole lot done this year. Gotta get after it now to make it through the winter. All of us workin' together. You gotta keep together if you want to make it through the tough times, you know. Watch those skies and look out for one another.

You never know what the weather's going to do.

Whoa, Nelly!

Tornadoes in February? Who'd a'thought it? Man! when I called up an early spring, I didn't figure on this! Mama Pdg is enjoying the crocus and tells me the daffodils are not only up but getting ready to bloom. What'd I tell you?

February 5th, the way you folks reckon, some time in the night, spring came tippy-toeing in. I felt it down in the burrow, slipped up topside and smelled it coming, wet and warm and early. The birds come in that night, the robins and the doves and those dang grackels. Dove song makes me misty, but those dang grackels just give me the calf back shivers.

Don't you get all excited and put out those tender plants yet, though. This is Oklahoma, don't you know. There's still cold weather ahead and, I'm tellin' you--watch out for that late freeze. It'll get you every time!

Karaoke, Anyone?

Oddest thing happened the other day, before all the ice came in--when it was still a warm Okie January day. There's this feller comes over to the pdog holes and sets out little microphones. We all wonder what the heck he's up to. Keep real quiet down below. You never know what kind of fool trap some of them human critters is going to come up with next. Don't want to end up in some pet store cage, y'know?

Anyhow, didn't seem too threatening, so we checked it out, talked it over, played with it a bit. Thought we might get up a quartet or two and try howlin' at the moon like the coyotes, but decided that might not be the best idea a pdog could come up with. The guy came back just before the ice came in. Guess he'd listened to his radio and figured he'd better collect his gear.

Come to find out, those human critters are studying our lingo! Imagine that? There's this Slobodchikoff feller out at Northern Arizona University who's researching our system of communication. Thinks we're smart! Huh! Coulda told him that if he'd come around these parts.

Sure wish now we'd got that quartet together.

**yawn**

What a summer we had. Gotta admit we stayed hunkered down during the campaign season. Too many human folks up and down knockin' on doors, comin' and goin'... Big doin's for the country. Hope things turn out for you.

It was long and hot for Pdog folk. Just our kind of weather. But now, we're ready to tuck it in for the winter. Been cross as a snake ready to slip its skin--it's that time of year. The wind's up today. Dern near picked up Mama Pdog and carried her off. Testy as I've been lately, I mighta just watched her go... But, naw...that's just temporary cussedness...it'll pass. I 'spect that wind is going to blow in one powerful storm.

Think ice.

You human animals don't have the sense of Pdogs. Ya'll ought to just shut it down and sleep through the bad stuff--get after it again come spring. But, no, you just keep on keepin' on. Better lay in some provisions for next week though. My bones tell me we're in for a real cold snap just before Christmas.

Ya'll take care.