Rufus The Prairie Dog

I went out earlier today (well, yesterday, since it's now 3:30am....I haven't been sleeping too well the past two nights...wonder what two events that might coincide with...) and decided to mix my newfound biking with my old love taking not terribly impressive photos. I biked over the the Nature Preserve where I used to go running before it was taken over by mountain lions and took photos of the cute little prairie dogs that litter the area. If you've never been near a prairie dog colony (or whatever an assemblage of p-dogs is called) it's quite amazing. They stand up on their hind legs and calls out to each other and scurry to these little holes. Apparently the ones calling and standing up form a perimeter around the threat--ie, me. The holes nearest me were silent, and bereft of little standing dogs. But those outside my range of harm were up and screeching. Thanks to my camera's rather prodigous zoom (8x optical) I was able to get some shots of these little guys.

The one pictured here is just about to descend into the hole. I've named him Rufus.


I present--Rufus.

Now this post seems perfectly reasonable at 3:48am. I'll have to see how it reads in the morning.