A Prickly Addendum

So... this is a quick addendum or post script if you will to the previous post.

I had mentioned that I cabled the dogs out on the hill on the lakeside and

while I was writing my post I hear this loud... ::tonk:: sounding noise.

Delta had walked... and then jerked on the end of her cable
and was standing staring at something down by the woodpile.

I looked.... and what I saw was a brown ball of fur that seemed to be moving.

Oh geez what now?!

But nothing really to be concerned about, sorta.
It was a baby porcupine.

It was very cute... and squeaking... and moved very... very... slowly.

However, usually where there are babies, there are pissed off Mamas so I took both the dogs inside and got my camera. Click on this movie link below and then just hit return/back in your browser window to come back to finish reading the post.

From Movies

While trying to take pictures and trying to convince myself NOT to touch and comfort the poor little thing I kept looking around behind me just in case.

I know they are slow moving critters... but so am I.

Also, a pissed off Mama porcupine might be faster than one thinks. I had to chuckle though because he saw me (of course) and walked towards me and slowly.. slowly... turned around to show me his tail. This helped to convince me not to touch him because not so hidden inside his pretty brown fur were short pointy spines.

I did not feel like having to explain to a doctor why I grabbed a porcupine. It might be one of those... "you're not from around here are you. Hay?" conversations. I sure did not want to embarrass my peeps by saying, "Well no actually.. I am from California. How did you know?" That response for some reason seems sufficient enough explanation for folks up here without any further expansion.

I was all excited about our visitor.
I told David and his first question was a sympathetic sounding...

"Did you kill it?"

::blink::

"Well dear yes I did. Of course. But I was not wearing my gun so instead I smashed it with a board I had handy."

"No I didn't kill it! I took pictures of it. Geez."

Just a side note for folks who do not know. Porcupines will eat your house... there are many places around here where you can see their teethmarks on the sides of houses. They will eat your trees... ditto for the teeth marks on the sugar maples.... they will absolutely destroy your garden... and as you can guess they are not afraid of dogs. They do not need to move fast. Quills are pretty expensive to have removed at the vets and are quite painful for a dog or a Californian.