Some Folks Just Can't Take A Hint...

For the past couple of weeks my neighbors have been complaining about a pesky varmit much like the one pictured here. They've had to de-quill one of their Anatolian Shepherds at least three times. So on Friday morning, I'm getting ready for work and the dogs are going through their usual routine only Frankie and Cosmo don't come home. I can hear Frankie barking like a wild man out there and figure they have the neighbors cat cornered again. So I jump in the car and drive around to Steve and Heidi's house (rather than hike though the woods as I'm trying to get to work). I pull up in front of their garage only to realize that the "ferocious" barking is now behind me in the woods past their house. I back up the drive and see Yonka (the Anatolian), Frankie and Cosmo buzzing around a tree. Cosmo comes right over - after all, he's a guard dog by nature, not a hunter, and he climbs into the car, "Hey, Dad, que pasa?" I have to hike into the woods though to retrieve Frankie - when his hunting instincts are going full tilt he doesn't listen to anything. Sure enough there's this big ole porcupine pushed up against a tree trunk with a fallen branch providng some cover. Frankie and Yonka are drooling like mad fiends. I manage to get him to sit so I can snatch him up and shoo Yonka back home. Now I know what they've been talking about. Luckily no quills. I call up Heidi when I get to work so they can check out Yonka's mouth again and she's talking that it's time to get out the 22. I suggest maybe we call the DNR first but never get around to it.

So yesterday I get up, the dogs go about their morning routine only I don't have to go to work. Before I know it I hear Frankie going berserk again in the woods back towards Steve and Heidi's. This time when I show up - he's spiked big time and it's not slowing him down one bit. I manage to get him to sit and scoop him up again and try to shoo off the neighbor dogs. I bring him home, wrap some Koban around his muzzle and go to work with needle nose pliers - I know now to clip the ends off so the quills deflate - however, these were not too imbedded, thank God. Then I grab my big staff (ok, so it's really an old closet dowel rod) and one of the dog crates and march off to catch the bugger. No luck - he's gone.

Then today it all happens again - sort of. Only now I have Georgie and Mary's dogs in the mix. Bella is a Great Dane/Malamute mix and Mikey is a terrier mix more in line with my guys, so you can well imagine the chaos as I start to hear Frankie going nuts again off in the woods. Today I was ready though - King of Catch and Release. Cosmo comes running over once again and then so does Frankie sans quills. ::big sigh of relief:: So I put them in the car and grab the dog crate and staff and hike into the woods and there he is...trying to look inconspicuous amongst a stand of weeds. By now it should seem obvious that porcupines are either stupid or stubborn or both (kind of like George Bush perhaps) so I plop the open crate down near him and poke and prod till he scuttles in to hide and - whap! - slam it shut. Not long after he is transported about 2 1/2 miles down the road on the other side of a creek and released. Hopefully he will notice that he is now in a relatively dog free zone and will stay put. ::fingers crossed::