Spirit Guide of the Day is Prairie Dog! This means it is a time to get active in your community, but remember to take time to yourself such as a retreat or time of silence to recharge your batteries and balance yourself. Help this out by increasing your vegetables and use discernment to know when to push or retreat in your situation. You may be pushing too hard so if all your meeting is resistance, take a moment to move back an rest so you can get a fresh perspective. People who connect with Prairie Dog are sociable and rarely get rattled by situations. These individuals are extra sensitive to sunlight, but do love the outdoors so wear protective sunglasses or sunscreen when you go out.

Prairie dogs are burrowing rodents that live in large colonies in the grasslands of central and western North America. There are five species of prairie dog: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Mexican, and Utah. Although the most common species is the black-tailed prairie dog which is the only species found within the Great Plains area of North America. These creatures are considered a keystone species, meaning that they play a very important role in the environment, and without them, many other species would be negatively changed. Their colonies create islands of habitats that benefit around 150 other species. They also are a good food source for many including coyotes, eagles, ferrets, and badgers. Other species such as the ferrets and salamanders use old Prairie dog dens as homes. Prairie dogs even help aerate and fertilize the soil, allowing for a greater diversity of plants to thrive. Prairie Dogs, themselves, eat grasses, flowering plants, roots, seed, and insects on occasion. They once were the most abundant mammal in North America, reaching up to millions of animals, but now are the populations is decreased by 95%. Prairie dog colonies are vast, complex networks of tunnels with multiple openings. These are easily identified by the raised-burrow entrances that give these small creatures more height when standing and acting as sentries to watch for danger. The tunnels of their home contain separate rooms for sleeping, rearing young, storing food, and eliminating waste. These social creatures live in closely-knit family groups called coteries which contain an adult male, one or more adult females, and their young offspring. These coteries are grouped together into wards, or neighborhoods, and several wards make up a colony or town. A complex system of communication possessed by the prairie dogs includes a variety of pitched warning barks that signal different types of predators. These animals earned their names by settlers traveling across the plains who thought that these warning calls sounded similar to dogs barking.