More porcupine

This October, we had a porcupine in the neighborhood.  The first time I saw her, she was in the grass under the big apple tree eating apples.  When she saw us (and the dogs) heading towards her, she climbed unhurriedly up the tree.  Apparently unflappable, she settled on a branch, plucked another apple, and sat there munching it.

A few nights later, I was out in the dark with the puppy.  We suddenly heard a loud crunching noise coming from the Kousa dogwood.  I put the pup inside, then went back out with a flashlight.  There in the shrub, perched at eye level, was the porcupine again.  Although I approached within a foot from her, she was unafraid. She had a red dogwood fruit in her handlike paws, and was busily munching it down.  The noise came from her noisy chewing of the large seeds in the fruits.  For many days after, we found chewed bits of dogwood berries beneath the bush.

The porcupine became a fixture in the neighborhood for several weeks.  Our neighbor, whom she visited for more apples, named her Phyllis.  Our porcupine was very beautiful.  Her quills were a rich umber, shaded to beige on her head.  She had large, liquid brown eyes and a sweet expression on her face.  Toward the end of this time, she somehow injured a leg...possibly from being hit by a car (I twice saw her trundling down the road on unspecified porcupine errands).  The local wildlife expert came by to look at her, and picked her up and handled her with leather gloves; we were informed that the leg had probably been broken, but that porcupines heal from injuries unusually quickly and she would likely recover completely.  A week or so later, she disappeared.  Our neighbor made a search and found five porcupine dens (what does a porcupine den look like?), but Phyllis didn't turn up.  We trust she has found a cozy winter lair, and ventures out from time to time to contentedly strip the bark from the trees in our woods.