The hills and plains surrounding the city are dotted with prong horns. (They too will wander into town as we saw a herd of them near the cemetery down the street from our house just a few weeks ago.)
There are sections of town where empty lots are occupied by prairie dogs, alert and upright.
The human population here is likely outnumbered by bunnies. They are everywhere! They were especially common around our apt complex. On one "journey" we saw 5 bunnies, a cat or two, and even a teenage sized raccoon.
But the animals in our neighborhood are of the smaller, more bushy tailed type. They are fast, agile, and full of personality. We are surrounded by red squirrels. I. Love. It.
I think squirrels are some of my favorite creatures. They are so clever! If I could tame one, you better believe I would. Our whole neighborhood is filled with them, but it seems our house is a favorite location for many. The reason for this is pretty clear as our neighbor to the west of us likes to leave them day old donuts and bagels. Yes, we have some faithful little fluffy tailed friends. Well, I call them friends... but they have made it clear that this is THEIR territory and that they only tolerate us being here because we offer them peace offerings in the form of scraps of food.
Many mornings as we walk outside, we are greeting by an explosion of chatter, sometimes just one, but often two of them, yelling at us for being so rude as to wake them so early. And if you make eye contact... oh wow. Be prepared for a stare down. They will puff themselves up and flick their tails impressively, standing their ground and making it clear that they are in no way intimidated by your presence. Ryan told me not too long ago one even tried this with his car. The squirrel dashed in front of his vehicle, puffed himself up, flicked his tail, and did his best to make sure that he (the car) knew it was on the squirrel's turf. I think it's hilarious. I love watching them dash across phone wires, fly up tree trunks, leap from branch to branch, and two handedly snarf down their food. They are marvelous creatures.
Not long after we moved in, I was watching one of these squirrels just outside our window. The tree is super close to the window, so the squirrel saw me, and despite the glass between us, turned to face off with me. Dodger sauntered over to see what I was looking at. This was his EXACT reaction:
It was hilarious! He was glued to the tree - totally enamoured by the red, bushy tailed rodent. How could he have missed it before?!
Can you see it? Like most pictures, this doesn't do it justice. The squirrel was actually much closer.
Now that he knows they are there, I will find Dodger at this window often. He will makes his rounds of the house, making sure everything is as it should be, then stops by the window to make sure there aren't any trouble making squirrels trying to claim our house.
One morning I went outside and found this little guy with a large chunk of bread making a break for the tree. He is on the right side of the trunk:
Surprisingly, we don't have many bunnies in this area. But I prefer the squirrels anyway. Between the MANY dogs (there are 9 on our immediate little block that I know of), squirrels, cats, deer and prong horns, we are never lacking for entertainment. :)
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