Our farm is a dog's paradise.
Open space, no leashes, a pond to cool down in, and plenty of interesting scents to explore, what else could a dog want? It seems that every time our son Robert visits us at the farm his dog Hunter sniffs out one creature or another. On two different occasions, Hunter picked up the scent of a Porcupine and things did not end well.
The first time around the venture ended up with him wearing the quills of the porcupine.
Living in the middle of nowhere does have a few drawbacks, like nothing is just around the corner, especially a veterinarian. Being that this unfortunate meeting happened on a Sunday the only option was for our son to remove the quills. That task took an hour or so, with Hunter yelping in agony the entire time.
The second time around Hunter's face was covered in quills.
Spikes were protruding from his nose and mouth along with at least a hundred others stuck in his face. At least this time it didn't happen on a Sunday because a vet was in need. $375.00 later Hunter was back on the farm, not quite as curious.
A few weeks ago as I was sitting on the front porch enjoying a morning coffee as Hunter was again on the trail of something.
I ignored his actions at first but his unwavering activity had me thinking, can he be on the trail of another porcupine? As soon as that thought came to mind I quickly went to see what the heck he had kicked up this time, praying it was not another dart-throwing critter. This time he had treed a raccoon which was about 15 feet up a tree. This poor guy wasn't having a very good morning. Not only was Hunter on his trail, he had obviously come across the dart-throwing critter, with several quills lodged in its face.
The one stuck in its nose had to be very painful.
I wonder how the heck this raccoon will remove these barbed darts.
It had rained most of the night, and at first, the wet fur of the raccoon made it look like a porcupine. Once I focused my camera in on the treed animal I breathed a sigh of relief.
It's a good thing dogs can't climb up a rope
or Hunter would have chased the raccoon further up the tree.
There's nothing like a dog that obeys commands. Despite Hunter being in a super excited state, on command, he sat there eyeing the raccoon while I took these pictures. I think he would have kept that raccoon treed all day if I hadn't taken him inside. Again on command, he followed me inside with one simple word, come.
On another occasion,
he took care of a groundhog that was living under our home.
