The Way The Trip Began....

Wonder and I are home from a whirlwind trip to Michigan and Tennessee. It was a great time with lots of visiting and number of new sights to see. I will strive to tell some of the tales and show some of my pictures over the next few days. I thought that I'd start at the beginning - with the story of how the day of our trip started out.

It is about a 2 hour drive to the airport for us. When I fly east, in order to make good flight connections and not end up at my destination in the middle of the night, I usually end up on 8am flights. To be on an 8am flight with a dog, I must be at the airport at 6am, which means leaving here at 4am, which usually means getting up at 3 or 3:30 am.
I still had a few very little odds and ends to finish up before this trip, so even though I didn't get to bed until 11pm or so, I set my alarm for 3am.

At 2am I found myself awake and staring at the ceiling. I lay there for a moment, just annoyed that I was awake before figuring out what it was that had woken me up - the dog yard. I listened for a moment and then decided that the fuss required my attention.
I searched the house for a pair of shoes that I hadn't packed and then clumped out into the yard.
It became quickly apparent that the issue at hand wasn't in the main yard, it was up near Geriatric Park. I feared one of the seniors was having a problem and was rushing up in that direction when I heard Cricket ROARING. I honestly have to say I have never heard a dog make such a noise. She was very obviously very mad at something - not good.

About half way to the pens Cricket met up with me. I only needed to see her pawing at her face to see what the problem was - a porcupine. DAMN!!!

I ran back to the house, yelled at Mark and then dragged a still furious Cricket to a crate in the garage. Her mouth and face were full of quills.
Mark and I spent a few moments locating the prickly intruder and ensuring he would not be an further issue. Cricket had mostly done the job herself. She had cornered him under Mark's car and had been trying to pull him out from under it a piece at a time.

By this time, all the commotion had woken Mike, who joined us in the garage to deal with the big, guard dog.

Cricket was such a good girl. With Mike holding her, me holding a towel over her eyes and Mark plucking we managed to remove probably in the neighbourhood of 150 quills from her face, mouth and tongue.
She really was a saint about it all. If she had decided to be anything less then cooperative, a trip to the vet would have been required.

Mark headed back to bed, Mike disposed of the porcupine carcass and headed back to his cabin. I glanced at the clock, it was 10 minutes to 3.

So much for beginning my trip well rested...