Posted by Snail garbage cans make good traps is the moral of the story....right?
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How about "Garbage cans make good receptacles for your garbage". Might also keep the racoons from scattering it.
Forgive me, but it seems a bit cold to wish the death of something just because it eats your garbage.
This, of course, comes from a guy who catches and releases bugs from his home. But the point is still valid.
Posted by Snail can we hear the story with the porcupine?
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The porcupine story goes back to this post, my first ever on UER.
http://www.uer.ca/...rpage=9&pp#post174 Partially excerpted here:
So I stood there, looking down toward the front of the house, wondering if maybe I could try to get to the front door, when I heard it. It wasn't the chittering sound of a woodland animal or the footsteps of someone approaching from within the house.. it was just a large THUD, like Frankenstein taking a heavy step. I don't want to say the house shook, but it was loud. In any event - I revisited this park, and this house, just yesterday. With the advantage of time, I began to wonder if the sound I'd heard was really all that loud.. and in any event, this location and day were perfect - parking in an adjacent state park, bright sunshine, no neighbors.
So yesterday I was outside, standing in the high weeds, taking pictures of the exterior, some junk in the yard, etc, when I began hearing the crack of branches approaching me through the brush. I just casually kept taking pictures, and just figured I'd greet whomever it was and show them the camera, the usual spiel. The crack of branches and the rustle of leaves drew closer.. surely I should be able to see somebody by now.. until the sounds were practically in front of me, maybe five feet away. What the heck..
Then I looked down.. and about 5 feet away from me was the biggest porcupine I'd ever seen. Of course, I've only seen two of them, but that's beside the point. He wandered close to the house, then disappeared under some brush.
So, I took the long, circular route around the place where he'd disappeared, and found the front door completely ajar. I entered, and after my eyes adjusted, realized that I'd found one of "those" houses - it was just full of treasure: old-time black and white portraits on the wall, a stack of old trophies, school pictures, about 15-20 chairs in various stages of disrepair, old-fashioned toys.. it was wild. It was while I was soaking this all in that I heard, once again.. a thud.
Looking slowly to my right, I spotted it - the thing that had likely made me scamper away like a little girl last year, and the thing that had scared the bejesus out of me.. it was right in front of me, atop a piece of furniture.
It was the damned porcupine.
Apparently he liked to wander about in here. It's possible that he lives upstairs, because where I found him, he was right next to an exposed beam, where it met a hole in the ceiling.
Anyway, I explored most of the house, the whole time under the watchful eye (and quills) of Porcy. He never moved the whole time I was there, and seemed to observe me with a "What the heck is this guy doing?" sort of look. I was unable to go upstairs or to the basement, as he sat almost directly in front of the door to those places.
So there you go, the Porcupine Story. Or, more to the point, the "TMiB scares too easily" story.
TMiB
Oh, PS - as for the window that I had tried to raise, and got stuck.. and that mysteriously was lowered a few months later.. from the names on the mail and such I found in the building, it seems that the people that once lived there might be using the site now for storage.. though it is the poorest excuse for storage I've ever seen.. stuff is everywhere. Shrug.