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Saturday, July 21, 2012

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A PORCUPINE MT. ABU

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.


"Kali small Face one of our many stray doge which we catered to, impaled with a few porcupine quills."
Kali small Face on of our stray dogs


"  Kali's small face came squealing home with quills' from a porcupine"
Kali's small face came squealing home with quills from a porcupine


"Kali small Face with quills deeply embedded."
Quills deeply embedded.

"Retrieved quills from Kali, as seen from snap the wuills were quite large."
Retrieved quills from Kali

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