Just don’t hug any prairie dogs

The Plague is the Bubonic Plague. Generally well known and accepted term for it.

prarie dogs and maybe squirrels harbor them, because other rodents also take shelter in Priarie dog burrows its possible to spread between different species, sustaining zoonosis. bubonic seems the most treatable, but pneumonic and septisemic plague is more severe.

Yersinia pestis.

Black Death.

Comes in 3 flavors: Bubonic, Septicemic, Pneumonic.

THE PLAGUE

(Editing to add, because I checked, NOT what killed Gene Hackman and his wife, that was another rodent sickness, hantavirus.)

If only they'd included a definition for the ignorant right in the same article:

"Plague occurs in three forms, bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic, depending on whether the infection hits the lymph nodes, bloodstream or lungs. Most US cases are bubonic, typically spread via flea bites from infected rodents."