Chapter 8 Racoons and Porcupines

One night recently I was awoken at 3 am to the sound of Shadow's bark.  His "I've got something cornered bark" is different from his warning bark.  He really should have been adopted by a family of coon hunters, he would have made the best damned coon dog on earth.  I grabbed my "father's" flashlight which is an old metal one that probably isn't made any more.  It's my lucky flashlight.  I always feel my father is with me when I have it in hand.  My father went on to the great beyond about 7 years ago but he still talks to me constantly and I usually listen.  He was a very wise Texan, born on the prairie, lived by instincts and a shotgun!  I remember when the electricity would go out during a storm he would always grab that same flashlight and head for the well house.  He taught me many things so it just seems right to carry his flashlight and use his 22 rifle...I'm safe!  Down the hill I went with leash in hand, I've learned not to waste time going back up to the house for things I know I will need.

It didn't take me long to realize Shadow had a porcupine cornered. Mickey always listens to me so I was able to threaten him with his life if he didn't leave that porc alone.  Shadow on the other hand didn't know I was even there, he was in his hunting mode and no amount of yelling and screaming would stop him.  Hitting him on the ass with the leash didn't help either cause he didn't hear or feel.  This was not the first time I have been through this drill, I've gotten really good at it.  I grab Shadow by the tail, all 83 pounds of him and pull with all my might...I work my way up his tail and grab his collar trying to keep my distance from the porc and my balance on rocky uneven ground..  At last I am able to get a leash on Shadow and it's all over.

My husband can sleep through anything.  Up the hill I go to awaken him and ask him if he would like to shoot a porcupine tonight.  He is a champ.  He jumps out of bed in his sleep, grabs his shotgun and is off down the hill.  He shoots the porcupine, throws it over the fence, goes back up to the house, crawls in bed and is asleep within minutes.  My heart is racing and I'm a bundle of nerves.  I have to sit in my favorite rocker and knit for an hour before I can get my heart back in rhythm and eventually go back to bed.  The next morning, off to the vet, for a mere $300. This time I take both dogs in cause I'm tired of sitting for hours removing quills from Shadow's body.  Two nights later around midnight another porc comes in for a drink of water and it's the same scene over again... except this time apparently the memory of the pain is still fresh.  Or maybe it's the shock collar I have placed around Shadow's neck.  The minute I hear his, "I've got a porcupine" bark, I shock the poop out of him which gives me time to grab my father's flashlight and leash and run down the hill. I threaten Mickey and work my way up Shadow's tail to his collar.  Back up to the house, awaken my husband who jumps out of bed, grabs his shotgun, down the hill, pops that porc, throws it's carcass over the fence and goes back up the hill to bed. We left those porcs near the fence line hoping others would take a lesson from viewing their peer's dead, rotting bodies.  A lesson taken from this for city folk who want to start a new life in the country....never throw a dead animal downwind of your house!

Those are not whiskers on Shadow!

Not a bad case of porcupine quills!

Raccoons love to tease dogs.  Somehow they know a dog cannot get through a fence.  One night I was awoken by Shadow's "I've got something bark".  I jumped out of bed, grabbed my flashlight and leash and was off down the hill. I was scared, it was summertime and a warm night.  Just the kind of night snakes like to hunt.  I worked my way through the cactus keeping my eyes on the ground for a camouflaged snake, making my way to the dogs.  They were at the fence line and Shadow was mightily trying to dig his way underneath the fence.  I wasn't sure what was on the other side, not knowing if it would lunge at me through the fence or not.  My brain doesn't always function well in the middle of the night.  So I was cautious and grabbed Shadow's tail working my way up to his collar while Mickey danced around us in excitement.  As I neared the collar to attach the leash I looked up and saw a pair of eyes staring at me in the glow from the flashlight.  Looking past the eyes I saw the raccoon who was not afraid of me either, he knew I wasn't coming through the fence to get him. In Shadow's determination to get that raccoon he was going in circles around me.  As the leash tightened around my legs I lost my balance on the rocky hill and down I went. I was grateful there wasn't any cactus there, just rocks.  Cursing in every language I knew, I managed to get to my feet and drag that black dog up the hill.  I tied him to a column of the house for the remainder of the night.  I don't like killing things but I swear I would have shot that raccoon if I had my shotgun in hand.  I guess I'm glad I didn't have it because I would have felt really badly about it later.  That little raccoon was just having fun in the middle of the night probably laughing at me laying in a heap on the ground.  It was showtime for him!

Shadow entertained himself the rest of the night by torturing scorpions that unknowingly ventured near him.  He had discovered that scorpions sting so he barks at them and even snaps them off the wall of the house and proceeds to torture them by slapping at them with his paws and biting them back!