What Am I?

• abstain—to keep oneself from doing something
• aestivate—a sleep, like hibernation, in the summer
• beset—to attack
• conceal—hide
• created
• duplicated—a copy
• gear—clothes or armor
• hot
• hibernate—to sleep for many weeks during the winter
• hue—color
• light
• meal
• native—belonging to a certain place
• pet
• snout—the nose and jaws of an animal
• stay—to satisfy hunger for a while

A native of the Old World, but
Found sometimes in the New,
I only grow up to a foot—
A speckled, gray-brown ______.

I satisfy my hunger pains
By hunting in the night;
Eating small mammals, birds, and snakes,
To stay me through day’s ______.

My tail and ears and legs are short,
Though I have a long ______,
With which I dig for ants and such
And elsewise knock about.

Because most enemies abstain
From making me their ______,
I have no fear of being seen,
Nor grunts and coughs conceal.

But when in danger I roll up
And cactus-like appear—
Only such creatures as the fox
Can overcome my ______.

When food is scarce I aestivate
In places where it’s ______;
In colder climes I hibernate
While winter’s storms are fought.

I can be tamed quite easily,
And am sometimes a ______,
To rid folks’ home of insects and
Other house pests beset.

Some of my traits are similar
To others’ God ______,
But all of them combined in one?
None have them duplicated.