Why do I even care?

I have to confess something that caues me great angst.

So there is this mile stretch of road that I encounter on the way to church/preschool. It runs along an open space of land next to a beautiful reservoir, smack dab in the middle of metro Denver.

And it's full of prarie dogs.

It should be called "Prarie dog Beverly Hills" because the houses just across the road probably cost close to a million dollars--we are talking prime real estate at it's best, yet this beautiful, costly land is reserved for the most esteemed of rodents.

The problem is that these creatures are not content sitting by their little holes and enjoying the beautiful view. Oh, no. They are daring and bold. And dumb.

Every single time I drive on this road (which is usually 8-9 times a week) they stand on the side of the road until they see me coming. At the last moment, one of them darts in front of my car and stands there, just staring at me.

Um, are we playing chicken?! Because if we are, I will definitely lose.

I absolutely hate roadkill. Every time I see something up ahead on the road that even has the potential of being a dead animal, I intentionally close my eyes when I drive by or try my hardest to look at something else. I have this fear that someday I will look right in the eyes of someone's former favorite cat, Fluffy, and I'll never be the same.

So as I am approaching these aforementioned stunt devil prarie dogs at high speeds, I always look away, tense up, and brace myself for the "thump thump" sound as I cruise over it in my minivan.

But somehow, I've been lucky enough to never have actually run over any of them. In fact, just yesterday, I was SURE it was inevitable and after I prepared for impact, nothing happened. I looked in my rearview mirror and the stinker was nowhere to be seen? Seriously?! I actually thought it might be some sort of bionic, MacGuyver type prarie dog and he was holding onto the undercarriage of my car, waiting to drop himself off at the next stoplight.

So weird.