Kali Small Face had an encounter with a porcupine
I had hit the sack at the
stroke of midnight and had drifted off into a dreamless and sound sleep. At
around 2.20 am my slumber was shattered by the wild anguish yelping of one of
my dogs, Liz, who had also been awakened by the din sat up and added to the
confusion by yelling at the scenario to try and curb what she assumed was an
assault by the leopard. I knew it was not the leopard as the incessant cry of
the dog indicated otherwise.
I scuttled out of bed
grabbing my searchlight and my faithful “लाठी” (Bamboo Staff), and rushed outside to see what had happened. The
visibility was low as there was heavy mist, and the mutt had clamoured to the back
of the house, I did an about turn and rushed to the back door to find it was our
‘Kali small Face’, she was in shock and her torment was extreme. I could see
she had been riddled with quite a few quills, a few more than an inch embedded
into her chest and legs. She flew past me into the house and scurried under a bed.
I tried coaxing her to come out when this did not work I got stern and tapped
my staff on the floor, she whimpered and limped into our room and headed
straight for Liz.
Liz stroked her gently all
the while talking to her in a soothing voice; I shut the doors to our room and
reached for our First-aid box, taking out a broad bandage to act as a muzzle. I
knew I had to act fast and remove those quills before she tried gnawing and
clawing at them to alleviate the extreme pain imparted
by them.
I gagged her securely and
proceeded to remove the quills. It took me a minute or so to remove the barbs,
she was very fortunate she had none on her face or mouth.
Guess she has learnt a
lesson, No more chasing after curious creatures that roam late at night.
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| Kali small Face on of our stray dogs |
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| Kali's small face came squealing home with quills from a porcupine |
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| Quills deeply embedded. |
Retrieved quills from Kali
