Wednesday, July 05, 2006

 

Porcupine Encounter


After the last encounter, and all the yelling, I'm a bit more wary this time. Though with the determination of my walking partner, I still went along to get a closer look.

Allex Michael: Ebbey's first porcupine encounter was with her boyfriend Grizzly.

Some of that experience stuck, because Ebbey did not lead the charge to see the porcupine. However, the Rottweiler has apparently not yet had a porcupine experience and was very determined to attack it.

The three of us have seen porcupines on several occasions, but always from a reasonably safe distance. A few times we watched, from a pedestrian overpass, as one walked along the highway below. We also were able to circle one as it tried to escape us along a walking path.

But this time, no such luck. I saw the porcupine before either of the dogs, and began walking up the hill to make a large circle around the creature. Then both of the dogs saw the miniature porcupine. Ebbey responded to my warning, but the Rotti took off and pulled me off my feet. I should mention that she does this wearing a halti. Ebbey then also joined the pursuit, with both dogs dragging me through deep grass. There wasn't much I could do to stop them. The three to five second pull seemed like a lifetime as I imagined being pulled onto the porcupine. Once out of the grass, I was now being dragged along a strip of pavement and fast approaching the young porcupine's tail. Suddenly, Ebbey veered off to the side and away from the porcupine. Luckily this, and the burning of my elbow flesh on asphalt was enough to stop the Rottweiler from dragging me face first into those porcupine quills. I came to a stop about two feet (60cm) from the quills. The Rotti just stood there staring at the porcupine. Why isn't this thing running? Scrambling to avoid a backwards quill attack, I got up pulled the dogs well away from the porcupine and then started cussing them both out. They sit when in trouble, but I haven't been this mad since they drug me through fresh dog poop. Or perhaps it was the cow poop incident. As we continued walking, my elbow burned all the way. A long sleeved shirt had provided some initial protection, but then the polyester fibers had worsened the burn. Returning home, I turned out to be one large grass stain.

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