Whoops!

Apparently, somebody called me out on my lack of knowledge about prairie dogs. Shocking, really, as they teach us so much about prairie dogs in medical school. Apparently, my lame attempt at humor went straight over their head. However little I know about prairie dogs, I do know that they can in fact carry the fleas which carry Yersinia pestis; some of the rodents in recent years were infected with monkey pox (they were in captivity) and tularemia (in Texas). Yes, I read Wikipedia. I apologize to any prairie dogs who read this for calling them disgusting disease-ridden vermin, as the correct term is "rodents"; "vermin" may be too discriminatory or prejudicial, and it's definitely not a politically-correct term. My bad!