MORE NEIGHBORS

Here is another one of our delightful neighbors. I believe those two dark spots are the critter eyes staring me down while I snapped the photo. This adorable creature is a North American porcupine, a rodent with a coat of sharp quills. It appears to weigh about 10 to 12 pounds which is average and it resembles a hedgehog.  I think they are very cute, also.

According to Wikipedia, it eats leaves, twigs, green plants and as you can see, often climbs trees to find food. Reputed to be very slow, we can attest to that fact because I took the first picture on my way to lunch and the second one two hours later on the way home. The critter had moved a couple of feet.

What’s really interesting is that they search for salt all the time. They will eat plywood cured with sodium nitrate, paint, footwear, and are attracted to roads where rock salt is used to melt ice and snow. This could explain why we saw it at the side of our dirt road which is loaded with salt from the winter storms.

I don’t care if it is considered a large rodent. I think it’s adorable! What do you think?

Remember I told you about the nutty bird who would come back and build her nests under my cat's nose, no matter how many time we toss them out in the fall?  Well, here it is.  She's back and making a mess of our front porch.

 Spring is great because it is so full of hope.   HAPPY APRIL!

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