My appearance to talk about the prairie dogs on KDVR's Everyday show

As some of you may know Prairie Dog Blog and its writer were interviewed on television, again! It was really fun! That morning I got into the car and my mom drove me to the big television studio. We spent a while waiting down at the front desk then Nick the intern came down and brought us up to the green room.  I had expected a green room to be like a green house and have walls made of glass or something like that. Unfortunately it was only a room with green walls. In the green room there was one of those mirrors surrounded in light bulbs that they have in movies about famous people!  In the green room there was a TV that my mom and I watched the beginning of the Everyday Show. After a little while Nick came back in and took us into this big room full of sets! There was a kitchen and a living room and a big green screen as well as a lot of other things all in one room. Previously I thought it was a bunch of different rooms that were not sets but real rooms.

We sat down in some chairs and watched the very people we had been watching on a television only a few seconds before. One of the guys was wearing a pair of hobbit feet slippers!  We watched them talk about silly toys that poop candy and other stuff then a commercial break and they started talking to us. then there was the next chunk of news and stuff, during the next commercial break they had me put on a strange microphone that goes in my shirt and clips onto my collar. When the commercial break ended they started talking about some news stuff then started talking to me about prairie dogs. It was fun and I was a lot less nervous than I thought I would be. When we got home I suddenly got really tired and nearly fell asleep.

Thank you so much to Natalie and Chris the hosts of KVDR's Everyday show. And to Mary the producer for including me. And to my friend (you know who you are) for telling the media about me. Also when the video is available I will post it here.

City Council Meeting Went Well!

The city council meeting that we went to went really well!  Click here for a link to the video.  All day yesterday I spent making my speech and perfecting it. Then at about five my mom and I went to Atlanta Bread.  Two People showed up for the pre-meeting meeting, we talked for a bit then they went and signed up to be part of public comment. While we were walking out of the restaurant to follow them someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was the girl trying to save the prairie dogs. It was so cool! Someone who I did not know but who recognized me! We talked for a bit then ran out to the car and drove to the council building as quick as was allowed by speed limits. We signed up then found good seats and sat down. Shortly after it started it was time for public comment.  I walked up to the podium and stood on my toes to reach the microphone.  It was like being in a court room with the judge looking down at you (I only know what that is like from movies, don't worry I am not a criminal!) I was nervous but I knew just to keep reading.  I finished quickly and went back to my seat. After a while of listening to zoning stuff my mom and I managed to escape. While walking out someone started a conversation about prairie dogs. It was so cool to be recognized as the girl saving the prairie dogs!

My Channel 2 News Appearance to Talk About the Little People!

yay!!!

 

Also see the article on KVDR's news site: http://kdvr.com/2012/12/10/lakewood-girl-memorializes-slain-prairie-dogs-protests-extermination/ 

Prairie Dog Blog Interviewed for Denver Channel 2 News!!!

Our cross making party turned into quite an event! My Mom and I put on coats and sweaters for the cold snow. I packed up a hammer, a pair of scissors  and a roll of thread. I did not have good string like yarn! 

Then, at ten before noon, my Mom and I went out to the big field full of crosses.  Standing there was a guy with a big camera taking pictures of the graveyard.  I went over to him and he asked to interview my Mom and I. He asked us a lot of questions and had us speak into a microphone while looking at a camera.  I was really surprised that I was not freaking out about being on TV and having thousands of people look at me!  There was only one question that I forgot the answer to which was what the neighbors were saying about it. I accidently said that I had not talked to any of the neighbors when I had talked to one of them.  When I had talked to the neighbor  he had said that humans were Superior to the prairie dogs and the only reason that we did not get plague was because we exterminated them.  

For the next hour we all made crosses to mark graves till our fingers felt they were going to turn to icicles. When I got home it hit me that I was going to be on TV and I spent a while jumping off the walls yelling "I'm going to be on TV!!!"

It was a crazy day that might just save the prairie dogs from extinction.

And a big thanks to Susan who called the news!

Watch us tonight! (maybe (if not it will be on during the day tomorrow)) (click here for a link to a web page that has the news)

Celebrating good news!/Come to a prairie dog graveyard cross making party!

A prairie dog 

Me making a grave-marker

The crosses

The first thing I want to say is there is really good news in the greenbelt prairie dog town! On my most recent walk down there I saw a miracle! There were five prairie dogs that escaped extermination! Most likely there were more hiding in holes in the ground! I found fresh holes all around the field!  To celebrate I would like to throw a prairie dog graveyard party!  There is a large field section that lots of people have put up many crosses and I want to help out! Anyone who wants to come just go to the place on the map below and bring some string if you can (there are plenty of sticks).  The party is on Sunday the 9th (tomorrow) at 12:00-1:00.

Lakewood CO Prairie Dog Action!

Join us to make a difference! It's time for you to take action!
Next Monday, the tenth, there will be a Lakewood city council meeting at 480 S Allison Pkwy Lakewood, CO 80226. I ask anyone who has free time from 7:00-9:00 on the tenth to come to the meeting. Also I would like to invite you to dinner at Atlanta Bread (7740 W Alameda Ave # E, Lakewood, CO) from 5:30-9:00 that same day, to discuss what we are going to say in the meeting that would be most helpful to the prairie dogs.  Atlanta Bread is an easy walking distance from the city council meeting.

Click here for more info about the council meeting.

Here are some things that we might want to think about saying at the city council meeting:

• Building an (extra) fence bordering the Windsor so they have no reason to complain if the prairie dogs come back.
• Asking if there is any place in Lakewood for the Longmont prairie dogs.
• Ensuring that no prairie dogs ever get killed in the Bear Creek Greenbelt.
• Insisting on a public comment opportunity before killing any prairie dogs in Lakewood.
• Celebrating Lakewood prairie dog day (February 2, 2013) with a focus on prairie dog protection.
• Does the city have any funding for protection or education about prairie dogs?

Please leave a comment below if you plan to come to the dinner and city council meeting so we know how many to expect.

The Little People Speak

A lot of people think that prairie dogs are pests and need to be exterminated.  They think they are just simple rodents that are annoying.  But when they call up the exterminators it is a lot more like committing murder than they might think. Prairie dogs are so much more like humans.  They will hug and kiss and care for their babies more like humans do than any other animal I know of.  But when they start speaking when you are killing them, that is crossing the line. (Click here for an article from the Io9 online magazine that has lot of interesting details about prairie dog speech.)

Scientists have proved that prairie dogs chirp at different frequencies depending on what they are saying.  They will say "cat" as loud as they can, and then other prairie dogs will come out of the ground and stand up on their hind legs and yell "cat." This signals other prairie dogs to do the same until the whole town is standing up on their hind legs and yelling "cat" (in prairie dog language).  Then, if a dog comes along, the same thing will happen but with a diffident sounding chirp. Of course the difference is so small that humans cannot hear it, but the fine-tuned ears of the prairie dog can, as well of course as the fine-tuned ear of the scientists' equipment.

Why are there laws against killing wildlife and especially human murder but not laws against causing the painful death of animals so much like us?

daly update

Hi readers,
 good news, I have gotten to nearly two HUNDRED page views and might get on the news to get more publicity to the blog!!!  Portugal has been added to the list of people who view the blog! We are at five diffident countries!!!

I would also like to apologize about not doing a blog post yesterday I was a little busy.  I also manged to find a video of the prairie dogs before they were killed. Soon I will post a video of the graveyard.

I am working on making a petition  but it is a lot harder than you might think! There is a lot of legal stuff that is hard to understand using my young brain.  So if any of you viewers happen to know where I can get a petition template, a really exact petition template, because the other day a bunch of people made a HUGE petition of over six THOUSAND signatures but because when printing it out they made the font one tiny pixel too small and all of their work went down the shredder.

Volunteers Protect a Colorado Prairie Dog Colony

     To help me to understand how people can save prairie dogs I realized that I have to read about previous victories. This is the first one I came by so I summarized it and posted it.

      There was a victory of prairie dog protectors in Colorado recently.  They saved a town that was going to be wiped out due to nearby farming. A bunch of volunteers put up a big four foot tall fence to make sure that the prairie dogs do not leave their field and populate agriculture and animal farms. They also put up about a foot of chicken wire on the ground to prevent tunneling under the fence.
     Maybe this is what I could do to make sure that people do not call in to complain about more holes in back yards if I get the Longmont prairie dogs into the field near my house.
     To get the fence solution to work I would need some volunteers and donations. That is why in the next few days you might start to notice some ads on this page.  I would also need to get permission to put up a fence from the city of Lakewood.
     Then of course there is the fact of getting the Longmont prairie dogs down here. I have found a nonprofit that might be able to help. Click here to go to their webpage. There is also someone that might be able to help that my mom has been talking to on Facebook who my mom originally got the information about the prairie dogs searching for new homes.

Hugs hugs And More Hugs!

I just thought this was so adorable and had to post it to the blog.

The Tiny People Die

I lived near a town full of lively prairie dogs. They would run and play with each other; they would hug, and groom their family and friends.

Today, I went down there for my usual walk, and there were no prairie dogs in sight. I thought it was normal, and that they were just sleeping or hibernating or something. But after a while walking along my favorite trail I saw that someone had written “RIP prairie dogs” out of sticks on the sidewalk. I got a little worried, so I went over to one of the holes.  It was filled up with dirt. I went to another one. It was the same: filled up with dirt. I looked around me. I noticed that there were little crosses and other places where these nice people had written stuff about the prairie dogs.   I realized that the Lakewood mayor or someone had arranged for them to be killed!  All of the precious little human-like rodents in this whole prairie dog city!!!
When I got back I got my mom to call the phone number of someone in the mayor’s office.  He had arranged for a company to kill all of the prairie dogs just because some people called to complain about holes in their backyard! He also said that some of the short grass prairie plants were getting killed. Then I heard information that this is going to happen again to a prairie dog town in Longmont!  

Introduction to the Prairie Dog Blog

Hello my name is Arwen Smith, I live in Lakewood Colorado near an ex prairie dog town.

This is a blog trying to help the prairie dogs of Colorado. Recently a whole city of prairie dogs near my home was poisoned and thrown away. A bunch of trucks came in and filled up their holes all because some neighbors called in to complain about a few holes in their yards. Soon this is going to happen in Longmont Colorado about two hours away from my house.  I do not want this to happen again!  Throughout this blog I will record my success and failures in saving the prairie dogs.  My goal is to get the president to make a law against killing prairie dogs in the US or at least a law in Colorado against killing the tiny human like rodents!

                The thing that makes these rodents the ones I want to save is the fact that they are really just like little furry human beings! They live in societies called prairie dog towns. They have organized little homes which have: bathrooms, bedrooms, and barking rooms where they can alert other prairie dogs of a danger without leaving the protection of their hole. They even have trash cans! Well, really extra holes that they fill with nut shells and stuff like that.  These little rodents even play with each other and work together and hug each other. You must want to help these people and you are doing so right now just by looking at this blog