Por-Q-Pine

[layla]

Got a nice close look at a porcupine yesterday; he was just browsing on grasses in my main dog-walking spot, and I moseyed up to him and bent over to get an up-close look at all the quills and such. He (or she) was not terribly happy about this, but it isn't as if porcupines can run away. The most he could muster was a leisurely waddle into the brush.

After getting home, I looked up porcupine information in the 'net and discovered that their quills are naturally antibiotic, because they regularly fall out of trees and stab themselves with their own quills. Ouch.

There was also a mama moose with a teeny little baby grazing in the swamp on my evening dog-walk. Cute! I climbed a gravel pile to get a better look, since I couldn't really see anything of the calf but the top of its back in the grass, but they had already vanished by the time I reached my vantage point.

And yes, I still have pictures to upload; we're going to go see PotC3 this afternoon and I'll probably do it when I get back, because I really need to get off the 'net and pencil this week's Freebird, dammit.

Comments

[neosquirrel.livejournal.com]

Wait, aren't moose... the single most deadly thing to run into out there?

Poor porcupines... that's like falling on your own knife.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

Moose are ... well, yeah, an animal the size of a thoroughbred with sharp hooves and a baby to protect -- not really something you want to get close to. My sister got chased by an irate mother moose one time; another time, we had a moose break a dog's leg by kicking it. I kept a safe distance. :)

[naye]

How cool! What weird little critters... This time of year you sometimes see hedgehogs around here, but otherwise the local wildlife sounds a lot less exciting than what you've got!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

We have a lot of porcupines, but this is the first time I've gotten a really good, up-close look at one, and in daylight too! (Normally they're nocturnal ... although given the lack of night at this time of year, one can hardly blame them for getting confused.) I wished I'd had my camera, because not only was it a porcupine but it was a very cool-looking one -- based on the pictures I've Googled, it looked more like an Old World porcupine (with nifty, badger-like white markings) than a New World porcupine, which are mostly dark and kind of drab.

[allanharvey.livejournal.com]

Hey, imagine it'd been a radioactive porcupine -- and you'd got bitten..!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

It would only have been a cool superpower if I'd actually been able to fire my quills at will, because turning into a lumbering monstrosity that has to whack her enemy to dislodge irritating but completely non-fatal quills ... it would have made Arm-Fall-Off Boy look halfway useful. ;) (Who still has, I think, my favorite superpower in the DCU, hands down. Er, pun intended.)

[allanharvey.livejournal.com]

In an astounding example of synchronicity, Arm Fall Off Boy will be the subject of today's Gorilla Daze entry. I've just this minute finished scanning the panels!

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHA! I can't wait!