Minestrone & Cereal For Cute Residents Of Kiwanis Park Prairie Dog Town

Well over 100 degrees on this second Thursday of July. Making Walmart my air-conditioned location to go on a nature walk of the anthropological sort, observing the interesting various iterations of humans pushing carts around Walmart.

On the way to Walmart I visited the nearby Prairie Dog Town in Kiwanis Park. It had been a long time since I last visited the neighborhood Prairie Dogs.

I had some minestrone that had been in the fridge for a week. And a couple boxes of unopened cereal that a neighboring diabetic no longer could consume.

A couple years ago a rather dire effort was undertaken to restrict the Prairie Dogs to living inside a walled enclosure. The dozens of Prairie Dogs which had made homes outside the enclosure were evicted, or entombed when their underground dens were crushed.

Upon arrival I saw no Prairie Dogs.

I walked to the Prairie Dog wall and scooped the minestrone into the compound, which did not attract any interest.

Then I started tossing out cereal. Soon I saw what you see above and below.

The above is only a fraction of the Prairie Dog action that suddenly erupted. There were a lot of Prairie Dog puppies. They are cute.

That is a pair of the puppies that you see at the lower left of the first photo, munching on cereal.

The Prairie Dogs, mostly the puppies, did a lot of play fighting between food munching. They remind me of Meerkats.

Since it was so HOT, my visit to Prairie Dog Town only lasted about 10 minutes.

My high speed walking visit to Walmart lasted about 45 minutes.

I suspect tomorrow Walmart will again be my walking location, due to the temperature again being well over 100...

Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Bulldozed After Border Wall Destroyed

Yesterday, late in the afternoon of the first Sunday of March, I received an urgent notice notifying me the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town had suffered a massive attack which had knocked down the border wall surrounding Prairie Dog Town, with Prairie Dog Town then bulldozed into oblivion.

This sounded dire.

I was shocked and quickly gathered up my documentation tools and made my way to my motorized vehicle transport to drive the short distance west to Prairie Dog Town.

When the outskirts came into view I was relieved to see the Prairie Dog Town suburbs had not been molested.

But then Prairie Dog Town came into view and it was worse than my imagination imagined. I pulled into the now dirt covered parking lot and saw the forlorn prairie dog you see above, above ground, surveying the damage done to his town.

Multiple prairie dogs were on top of their town's ruins, working to rebuild, such as the little guy you see below.

Another overview of the destruction zone, with another prairie dog seen working on rebuilding.

Across the street from the now destroyed Prairie Dog Town, suburb dwellers were seen above ground looking at the remains of their town, a trio of such you see below.

I am assuming there is a good reason Prairie Dog Town was attacked and its walls removed. It looks like where the wall previously existed a new foundation has been poured, perhaps for the erection of a new wall, with the possibility a new improved Prairie Dog Town may rise from the rubble.

We can only hope.

The prairie dogs seemed to be in good spirits. I was greeted by a lot of barking and a few prairie dogs running towards me hoping for some vittles. I did not think to bring any vittles in my rush to check out what had happened to the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town.

Veterans Day Visit To Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town With No Armistice

With it being Veterans Day, or Armistice Day if one prefers to pretend the American 1950s never happened, I decided to visit my neighborhood's survivors of the Indian Wars who live in the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town.

I did not know if the cold weather would have the Prairie Dogs underground or out and about.

I brought with me a bag of various bread products I cleared out of my fridge this morning, along with sweet potato peelings I made this morning when I peeled sweet potatoes.

Arriving at the Prairie Dog Town suburbs it was quickly obvious the cold weather had not sent the Dogs down under Town.

The little guy on the left is enjoying one of those sweet potato peelings. When the Prairie Dogs see food has arrived they announce the delivery with a sort of high pitched barking which has the Town come to life with Prairie Dogs peeking out of burrows all over town. And in the suburbs which ring the walled main Prairie Dog community.

This guy, who I call Chester, immensely enjoyed the chunk of Italian bread I tossed him. He finished that and then I tossed him some whole wheat bread, so as to provide some extra fiber. Chester also got some sweet potato peelings.

This pair enjoyed big chunks of French bread while I admired their artistic homage to nearby Mount Wichita.

Since my last visit to Prairie Dog Town a new playground has been installed. A walled playground with a deep covering of sand inside the wall. I assume this is intended to be a barrier to Prairie Dog additional development, blocking this area from being a new suburb.

The previous playground equipment had been compromised by a Prairie Dog invasion, with burrows at the base of the slide and all around the swings and monkey bars. The Prairie Dogs are strategic with their land grabbing invasions, hence the Trump-ish border wall, attempting to keep an area out of Prairie Dog control.

I suspect there is Prairie Dog plotting afoot in the Prairie Dog Councils of War, on this Armistice Day of 2017, trying to determine the best way to make an encroachment into the new walled playground area.

When next I visit I expect to see Prairie Dogs popping up from burrows burrowed under that deep sand behind the wall....

Mother's Day Visit With Wichita Falls Mothers In Prairie Dog Town

A long time had passed since I'd last visited my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town.

And, so, what with it being Mother's Day, and what with Prairie Dog Town having a lot of mothers in residence, I decided to pay them a visit today.

I did not arrive at Prairie Dog Town empty handed. I had a bag full of flour tortillas, corn tortillas and whole wheat bread.

Upon arrival I quickly saw that Prairie Dog Town has expanded since my last visit, with many new burrows sprouted at locations quite a distance from the walled city which makes up Prairie Dog Town proper.

As I pulled into a parking space multiple Prairie Dogs scurried for home from their sunning location on the pavement. I was not quick enough with my camera to photo document the Prairie Dogs on the road.  But I did manage to do some photo documenting of the Prairie Dogs inside Dog Town.

Above you are looking at a couple Prairie Dog babies.  They came out of their home hole when they heard their relatives making their "there's food"  squeal.

Eventually I was able to toss some bread product to a pair of the babies. Their mom was not evident. Unless she was one of the Prairie Dogs who did not fear getting close to me in order to get vittles.

Below we see one of the potential Prairie Dog Mother candidates, securing a chunk of flour tortilla with her left paw. Maybe she is contemplating taking the chunk to her babies.

No. She decided to have it all to herself.

Has anyone ever domesticated one of these cute critters?

The little Prairie Dog feller below seems to be quite devout, praying before he partakes of a chunk of whole wheat bread.

I do not understand why Wichita Falls does not make a big deal out of its Prairie Dog Town. Such as promoting it as the Biggest Prairie Dog Town in the World (in an urban setting) or some such thing.

Make the wall around Prairie Dog Town more attractive. Not a Donald Trump type wall paid for by the Mexicans, but a real wall serving a real purpose. And somehow wall off the Prairie Dog Town suburbs which have sprung up on the town's outskirts.

There is not even signage pointing people to Prairie Dog Town. One has to know Prairie Dog Town is located in Kiwanis Park, on the north side of Southwest Parkway, with the entry a short distance west of McDonalds and the Post Office, to know where to go to visit the Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs.

I think the next time I visit Prairie Dog Town I'm bringing brownies. I'm thinking those little critters will really like brownies...

Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Survives 5.6 Oklahoma Earthquake

On my way to ALDI today I decided to check in on my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town.

I was concerned that this morning's earthquake might have left the residents of Prairie Dog Town all discombobulated from the unusual shaking.

Upon arrival the Prairie Dogs seemed perfectly happy. Brother and sister, Theo and Ruby, quickly greeted me with their telltale welcoming chirp, soon joined by their big brother, David, who did no chirping.

David is a bit shy. He popped up above ground to see who is siblings were chirping to and then quickly headed back underground, as documented below by my excellent photographic skills.

Then morning's earthquake shook shortly after 7. I was walking toward my kitchen to make coffee when I began to feel a bit wobbly. The wobbly feeling did not last long.

I did not realize I'd been shook by an earthquake til I was informed about such via the news.

A 5.6 shaker which was felt as far north as Nebraska and south into Texas, epicentered near Pawnee, Oklahoma.

I was shaken by many earthquakes during the years I lived on the West Coast. The West Coast earthquakes were extremely LOUD. The first thing that startles one during a West Coast earthquake is the LOUD thundering noise, and then you realize you are shaking and everything around you is moving, trees swaying, windows popping.

Today's earthquake, as experienced in Wichita Falls, was eerily quiet, with the earth moving in total silent mode.

Methinks a frackquake is a different type quake than an earthquake caused when Mother Nature decides to adjust one of her underground fault lines, hence the eerie quiet. If a frackquake is not caused by tectonic plates moving, what causes the frackquakes?

A 5.6 level quake starts to get into the magnitude zone that can cause actual damage. Was this the BIG ONE? Or is a BIGGER ONE coming? What level of earthquake was the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium designed to handle? Or other Texas structures. Like giant highway flyover exchanges, such as Fort Worth's Mixmaster, or the High Five in Dallas.

Visit To Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Ends With A Mama Dog Scolding

For my daily communing with nature today I decided to return to my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town and its Dog Town suburbs.

Soon upon turning onto the road which leads to the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town I came upon multiple Prairie Dog Puppies playing in the road.

By the time I got my camera pointed out the windshield all but the two Puppies you see here remained on the road, whilst the others had retreated back to the protection of their Mama.

We will see that Mama later in a photo and via video.

But first I got photo evidence of why the Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs seem to be so tolerant of their human visitors.

The above lady was with her kids, tossing food to the Prairie Dogs. I asked what she was throwing at them. Carrots was the answer. She said they eat just about anything. If you look closely you can see that the burrow receiving carrots is near some playground equipment. Let's look closer at that.

Prairie Dogs have built a Prairie Dog Town suburb quite close to the ladder which leads to a curving slide.

Another Prairie Dog Town suburb has been built near a row of swings. Clearly the Prairie Dogs like to live near where their human friends play.

Below is the aforementioned Prairie Dog Mama and a couple of her babies.

I got too close to the babies and their Mama, which had Mama scolding me and sort of waving her upper arms at me as she stood up. I think the scolding may have been Prairie Dog barking. You can see this incident in the video below, along with a look at the wall which surrounds Prairie Dog Town...

Visiting The Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town

About a mile north of Mount Wichita in Lake Wichita Park and about two miles west of my abode's location west of Wichita Falls' Weeks Park there is a Prairie Dog Town in what is called Kiwanis Park.

I first visited the Prairie Dogs on Tuesday, after a night of heavy rain. At that point in time the Prairie Dogs were in full frolic mode, as if celebrating that the night of heavy rain and thunder was over.

Two days ago I visited the Prairie Dogs a second time to find  nary a Prairie Dog anywhere to be seen. The weather on that day was misty and foggy. Methinks Prairie Dogs are averse to any form of precipitation.

Today, with the return of blue sky, on my third visit with my neighborhood Prairie Dogs they were in full frolic mode, seeming to be having themselves a mighty fine time.

I think the Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs get a lot of friendly human visitors.  The Prairie Dogs acted way less finicky than turtles and ducks I have visited in other Texas parks.

There is a thick enclosure around Central Prairie Dog Town. I assume this installed to try and keep some control over the size of the town.

However, somehow some  adventurous Prairie Dogs with a pioneering spirit have migrated out of the enclosure and have established multiple suburbs, some a couple hundred feet from downtown Prairie Dog Town.

I have always found Prairie Dogs to be real cute and cuddly. Sort of the American version of Meerkats, which I also find cute and cuddly.  Many of the Prairie Dogs in town today appeared to be puppies. Lots of little dogs.

Below is a short video I shot today of frolicking Prairie Dogs. The Prairie Dogs you will see in this video are some of the pioneer Prairie Dogs, building new towns outside of the incorporated Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town....