Day #6 - Stickler

For a while this summer I was walking my dog every morning. I am not in the best shape so walking up a few steep hills really tends to take it out of me, but after 3 weeks of walking nearly every morning it got pretty comfortable and our routine got longer and quicker as tends to happen when one applies oneself.

One morning there was an attempted humping incident from a rogue dog, a bad judgement call in reaction to said incident and Spazz (Bart NOT me) took off at a full throttle run to home base where I found him, with said scoundrel still gyrating nearby, limping pathetically around the drive-way having hurt his leg during the mad dash home. Since that time I have not been as motivated to go out walking without my trusty companion to protect me from vagabonds (snort!) - Really just an excuse to sleep in an extra 40 minutes every day.

BART: Mixed Something and/or Other - 14 years old 

Bart is now in rehab and we went for a short walk this morning that involved a flat stretch. He gets SOOO excited to go on a walk and he is incredibly grateful for the small favor. The person who takes him out on a given day will have his sole devotion for the duration - he follows you from room to room and hops up to set his head in your lap and gaze at you adoringly for as long as you are willing to allow it. Sweet old puppy - I could take a few lessons in gratitude from him.

AH - I digress...I haven't even started the main story yet...

Today, we came walking down the small hill to home and as I came up to my drive way I stopped and stared at the...Raccoon?...Nooooo...PORCUPINE! HA - the FIRST Porcupine I have ever seen in real life (as opposed to TV and the Zoo). He was SO CUTE!! The poor fellow was just minding his own business, ambling along and here we come and surprise him.

Bart was THRILLED and REALLY wanted to go play with him. Porky and I just looked at each other with big eyes and then he slowly did a 20 point turn about, which I am sure is as fast as he could manage, and headed the other direction.

In my mind, I KNOW he wished he was a cartoon porcupine and could jump up a foot and do a startled half turn and run away, feet spinning in the air leaving behind a smoke bubble. But honestly, he was so funny! He just waddled away as fast as he could, which was just fast enough for me NOT to have time to grab my camera and take his picture. I have GOT to start carrying that thing around with me when I am outside in my neighborhood.

That is the blessing and the curse...you never know what you might run into up here, but it is always amazing, sometimes nerve racking and blasted difficult to capture on film.

I Am Grateful,
HB

I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of porcupine - this is what mine looked like, but I took this picture off the Internet...