recent pics here showing gun dog encounters are not pretty
I "relocated" 2 off our property, as I didn't trust the 3 dogs curiosity.
Have seen the nasty, done to my brothers blue heeler.
New 2 99s;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day out in your part of the world is as fair, bright and still as it is here today. We're having a wonderful day for this time of year truly.
When we were farming, the cousin which we farmed with had a Cocker Spaniel which was as bright as the average spanner really - and no, we don't use that term, however he made what we'd call a Ukrainian Socket Set seem bright in comparison.
One of his many failings, other than running under the rear tires of pickups, was porcupines.
Somehow since I was the ardent hunter of the 3 of us who were farming together, the task fell to me to dispatch any wayward porky that came close to the yard which held said brain trust candidate dog.
As I was still in the pangs of remorse from dispatching one, when the 2 way radio announced another one headed to their yard, I swung by the house for a quick conference with my then new wife. She's always been the brightest one in the room Paul. so suggested that we grab a big box from something we'd just picked up, a chunk of 1/4" plywood and just live trap the thing.
The method was benignly simple really, we both hazed it away from the yard on a stubble field, got it into a slow trot - for a porcupine that is of course - and then at the opportune time she ran in front of it, put down the box and I scooped it into the box with the plywood.
Then I closed the box lid, carried to my pickup and we drove it 4 or 6 miles north to where no dogs but lots of bush were.
She still laughs about the fact that when I tried to release the little fellow, it seemed very reluctant to leave it's new home and seemed sad to do so!
On the subject of how many or few there are here, while we used to see the odd one here up on the sagebrush covered mountains most of the time, it's been so long since we've seen one that our eldest commented just last weekend when we were up hunting that she can't recall ever seeing a live one.
It's not logging here that's caused them to disappear either I don't believe, as we'd mostly see them in the sagebrush and Ponderosa Pine sort of foliage which doesn't get logged of course. I'm actually not sure why they're so scare, but here they surely seem to be.
All the best to you all this season Paul.
Dwayne
