Porcupine

This morning as I was walking to work with our beautiful dog, we ran into a porcupine. It’s the third time we’ve seen a porcupine on this part of our walk, so I think he must live there. The other times Isla has let me know that there is something there but not chased after it. This time she chased after it. I called her back, and the porcupine grudgingly shuffled off the trail and we continued on our way to work. It was when I got into the lighted part of the walk that I realized that she must have somehow wagged her tail into the porcupine’s face. She had a porcupine quills and her tail! When I got to work I turned on all the lights and I was able to remove them with some effort. I was surprised at how deeply embedded they were and frankly how much blood there was. Of course it’s a labradors tail so she wagged her tail when we were done. My office was efficiently decorated with blood for Halloween. Half an hour of cleaning later I’ve gotten the core level down a bit.

 Here’s the quills: