On our hike over to the Beaver Bog (which is a pond now that the beavers have dammed it up) the other day, Kayla was nose to the ground marching forthrightly ahead. This was a recent, fresh track of [pick one] deer, squirrel, mouse, one of our cats, one of our neighbor’s cats, raccoon, fisher, another dog, possum, or any other creature of the woods.
I was able to spot something ahead of us, which is usually a really good thing. See the second image to see what I saw. Something small, round, furry, and black. Luckily, this creature did not move at all during the entire episode. I quickly secured Kayla to a tree before she saw it. I looked around to see if it had any team-mates. As I said, if it moved when we approached, I would have had an eighty-five pound rocket on a string. This is not a guess.
So, this is likely a young porcupine, scared out of its wits and frozen in the foliage. You can see the beginning of its set of quills. I managed to get a couple images on my phone and Kayla has never seen it.
