Pockets the Prairie Dog

I saw a video on social media of a pet prairie dog a couple of days ago and it reminded me of our pet prairie dog, Pockets.
Pockets came to live with us as a tiny baby that lost her mother to a traffic accident. My brothers were on dead rabbit patrol one morning when they found her (they drove the highway near our place picking up dead rabbits to feed the great horned owls, which is another story). Well, they saw the flat momma and, at the last minute, they noticed a tiny baby with her. They were afraid the baby would get back to the burrow and they wouldn’t be able to help her, so Bob threw the car into neutral and they both jumped out to catch the little pup.
They brought it back to the house where Mom did what she did with every animal: she took into her heart and did her best. We researched the needs of little prairie dogs and built a “burrow” for her, then we started feeding her. She was still nursing, so it was eyedropper time for a short while. Eventually, she moved into an old guinea pig enclosure. She got the name Pockets because Mom carried her in her shirt pocket for a long time as it kept her warm and contained. She would snuggle right down in a pocket and sleep in between feedings.
When she got a little bigger and needed a burrow with more room, a wide-mouthed peanut butter jar with a tanned rabbit hide in it was perfect. She became part of our menagerie and was a welcome learning experience. We found that even though she was in the house in the winter where it was warm, she would still hibernate — from about the mid-November to mid-February, she would stay in her burrow and not move much at all.
We took advantage of that time to trim her nails and check her over well. She was still a wild animal and didn’t really relish being handled much. It was strange handling her because her body was so cold (a hibernating animal’s body temperature naturally drops). It felt like she should be dead, but she would move a little, which let us know she was okay. It was safer for her and us to do the necessary things while she was sleeping. She could bite and bite hard: being a rodent, she had very sharp teeth and she wasn’t afraid to use them.
One year, after the toe trim, my brothers got a little rambunctious and started gently tossing her back and forth because she was curled up in a tight little ball. It didn’t take long for them to learn why one should “let a sleeping prairie dog sleep.” They both got bit and she was super grouchy. Mom took her, calmed her down, and put her back in her burrow, and then severely scolded the boys.
Pockets was a well-loved pet and lived probably a lot longer in our house than she would have in the wild. I don’t remember how old she was when she died, but it seems like we had her for about six years. I hesitate telling these stories about our pets because I am not an advocate of keeping wild animals as pets; most people don’t take the time to research how to best care for the animal. Plus, if it ever returns to the wild it is then habituated to humans and that can be deadly for the animal.
Wild animals should stay wild.

Quick Butter Dips
- ¼ cup butter
- 1½ cups flour
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup milk
Heat oven to 450º, melt butter in a 9x9-inch pan in the oven, removing as soon as the butter melts. Stir dry ingredients together, then add milk. Stir until dough clings together, knead lightly — about two times — then roll to an 8-inch square. Cut into strips 4-inches wide and then in half crosswise. Dip each in butter in the pan and place in two rows in the pan. Bake for 15-20 minutes.