|
|
|
nobody got quilled
Tuesday, April 29 2025
After I got home from work, I took Charlotte for a walk down the Stick Trail, working only briefly on the extension of the Chamomile Wall west of the trail. I walked maybe a half mile down the trail before climbing the escarpment to the west, which towers especially high in that region, though I found a steep wildlife-made "mountain goat path" that made the climb not too difficult. As I was heading back northward (that is, homeward) on a fairly well-established (but not formally named) trail along the top of that escarpment, I heard Charlotte's piercing bark down somewhere below me. So I picked me way back down the escarpment. I then could see Charlotte just below the Gullies Trail on the same terrace it runs along, but out closer to the escarpment to the next terrace downhill. I couldn't see what she'd been barking at, though I scanned the trees above her for bears and fishers. Then I saw it: a fullsized porcupine. It was leisurely climbing a tree, having been on the ground, perhaps beneath a tangle of fallen trees, only a minute or two before. (This was in the area heavily affected by a line of small powerful wind events some years back that I've referred to as "tornadoes.") I saw Charlotte vigorously shake her head, and initially that seemed to indicate she might've been quilled. But when I got up to her, I saw she was entirely quill-free. Good girl! She'd managed to find a porcupine on the ground and yet had refrained from making contact. That's the sort of learning that makes the evolution of the porcupine quill possible, though it's rare to see a domestic dog show signs of having done it.
As I approached home on the Stick Trail, I saw that Neville, after something like a twenty minute delay, had finally decided to try to find us. But he hadn't even made it to the Chamomile. That was, of course, for the best, since Neville has never shown any signs of having learned anything from the numerous porcupine incidents he's participated in.
Back at the house, I boiled up some campanelle pasta, which I ate with red sauce thickened with mushrooms, onions, and chunks of vegan breakfast sausage. Later I took a bath, and my brother Don kept trying to call me so much that I ultimately unplugged the telephone. I will be telling him that when he calls repeatedly in a short time span and I don't want to be disturbed, he risks my doing this. And then I might not plug the landline back in for days. (The landline these days is mostly just for communicating with him.)
A small striped maple on that high escarpment I climbed from the Stick Trail. Click to enlarge.
Today's porcupine soon after I showed up on the scene. Click to enlarge.
After the porcupine found a place higher in the tree to stop climbing. Click to enlarge.
A small striped maple on that high escarpment I climbed from the Stick Trail. Click to enlarge.
Neville saw me as I was returning and flopped down in the trail. Click to enlarge.
It's great he didn't get anywhere near the porcupine. Click to enlarge.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?250429 feedback
previous | next |
