Please... do come in.

Rotund animals are, for me, one of life's simple pleasures. This fine specimen makes his home at the local zoo. The prairie dog display is a small open pit where the little guys alternately scurry in and out of their holes and sit on their giant round bottoms. It's like a little Coloseum, where we zoo visitors are the spectators -- only in a nice way, a way that validates and encourages their adorable existence.

Another one, for your viewing pleasure:


Here two prairie dogs were having a dialogue. They were either saying, "Okay, we'll just sit here as if nothing is new with the world, and then when they least expect it we'll let out these urgent high pitch chattery screeches that will scare the bejesus out of them because they thought prairie dogs were one of those animals without vocal cords, like zebras," OR the one in the back is saying to the one in the front, "You should stand in front of me for the picture because you're the skinny one and I don't want my butt to show."