Fighting a good fight

As a lot of you may already know, since moving to Colorado I have taken a great interest in prairie dogs. I had never seen a prairie dog before coming to CO. I see them everyday on my way to school at Frontrange in Westminster and I say to myself that one of these days I'm going to run off the road because I'm too busy prairie dog watching.

Shortly after my first semester at Frontrange began, I noticed that acres and acres of land on both sides of Sheridan were being plowed. I couldn't for the life of me think of any reason this was being done. It was obvious that it wasn't because they were planning on developing the land (not in the near future anyways) so what the f? I'm sure there was some reason but it bothered me so much because that land was home to thousands of prairie dogs and these tractors were bulldozing everything in site with no concern for them.

I couldn't think of anything else to do so I e-mailed all of the city councilors of Westminster and gave them a piece of my mind. I also e-mailed the prairie dog coalition asking for advice but I never heard back from them. So that was last semester; this semester all those acres and acres of land are still just sitting there....plowed. The prairie dogs seem to be just fine and all is well for now.

So the reason for this post is my new crusade for the prairie dogs! There is a lot on the northwest side of Sheridan and 112th that has been under development for a long time now but the development has been moving really slowly. There are prairie dogs on the lot that have been having to cross the sidewalk to find food in the manicured lawn next to Sheridan for about 2 months. I see them over there everyday on my way to school and it breaks my heart. There is absolutely no where else for them to go. The lot is bordered on two sides by road, another side by a gas station, and on the other side I believe there is a preschool or something. Basically they are stranded and at the mercy of the bulldozers.

About a week ago I noticed that the development was picking up, there was a lot of heavy equipment around, and they were starting to build. And there were the prairie dogs...everyday, forced out into the only place they could still find grass. It was SO sad! I realized that if the day came that I drove to school and the lot was paved and there were no more prairie dogs to be seen that I would blame myself because I waited for someone else to do something instead of being proactive and doing something myself.

So two weeks ago I e-mailed the prairie dog coalition and got no reply. So I e-mailed them again and still no reply. Finally I called and got a msg that everyone would be out of the office until the19th. I waited and called on the 19th and spoke with someone who said they would read my e-mail and get back to me. Two days went by and no e-mail, so I called again. They told me they never received my e-mail so I gave them my e-mail address and I finally received an e-mail the following day giving me pointers on how to start the relocation process. I started by calling a few of the well know relocators and got a hold of someone that had actually started the process of moving those very same prairie dogs months ago. Unfortunately she had had to go in for emergency heart surgery and was unable to finish the process. She told me that to her knowledge there were no more prairie dogs at that location. She was happy to hear that some had survived and willing to engage in the process of moving them once again. She gave me the contact number for the development company and agreed to start some of the necessary paper work.

I called the development company and spoke to the woman whose name had been given to me by the relocator. This woman was a complete idiot. I told her that I, along with a well known prairie dog relocator were beginning the process to move the animals off the lot and if she could please forgo any plans on poisoning or other lethal means of removal it would be greatly appreciated. She told me that there weren't any prairie dogs on the land that they had all left. I thought to myself, "Um, yeah, but I'm calling about the imaginary prairie dogs ?" I mean, seriously? Why the hell would I waste my time tracking down your number if there weren't any prairie dogs? I'm hoping this company is just an equal opportunity employer and required to hire a certain amount of dumbasses

Anywho, I informed her that there were indeed still prairie dogs living on the land and to please let me know if any plan was to be implimented to get rid of them. She agreed and we hung up. Whether her tiny little brain was able to comprehend the words coming out of my mouth is still uncertain.

Last week sometime bulldozers plowed over the only remaining burrows of the prairie dogs. And they didn't just plow over them, they piled about four feet of dirt on top of them. I found this out two nights ago when I went out there to throw some hay and veggies for them (Deb, the relocator, told me I could do this to supplement their scarce food supply and also to get them used to treats so that they would be easier to trap)

Needless to say, I was devastated. I was almost in tears thinking that if I had only acted sooner they might all still be alive. I was also very pissed off because I had just spoken to a woman, however incompetent she was, who assured me that they would be fine on the outskirts of the lot until early June at least! What a lying biatch! So, not giving up hope, I went back there today to see if I could see any prairie dogs and I did. There were three that I could see, down from the five or six I usually see, but maybe the others were being shy. So I gave them more food and I will continue doing what I can to help them get out of there.

Sorry this was so long, I have even more to say but I'll save it for later. :)