A Stickery Situation- Part Two

To read part one, click HERE.


SUMMARY OF LAST POST (for those of you who don't want to read it) ;D I found a porcupine after my boss's dog got into a "disagreement" with it and I had to put the porcupine under a box to be dealt with later. I left work that night sad about the porcupine's fate, only to come in the next morning...

The next morning I was at work at nine, a nice change from the usual seven o'clock start times. I was getting tired of those.

I came down the driveway and greeted my boss, the younger Mr. Hansen, and got a list of the things I was to do that day.

"What happened to the porcupine?" I asked. I was a bit afraid to find out.

My boss got a funny look on his face. He scratched his beard and began to chuckle. "Well, the thing is, I actually haven't been out there to see if he's still there or not," he admitted. "I forgot last night because we had a rush of customers, so I went straight home and left it out there."


My heart soared. Maybe the porcupine got away! "Do you want me to go check?" I offered.

"Sure." He waved it off. "He's probably gone by now."

I took the gator out to the back of the orchard and to the spot where the porcupine had been jailed. When I got there, I knew right off without getting out of the gator that Mr. Porcupine had made his grand escape. The box had been moved and the porcupine had dug his way out. He was nowhere to be seen.

Inside, I was glad. I was so happy that the unlucky little guy had managed to escape detection and get away. I wasn't looking forward to finding out he'd been "disposed" of during the evening. I liked the little guy, he hadn't even tried to attack me when I put him in the box! Not to mention when I showed my sister him before I left work that afternoon, we'd opened the box and he kinda just stared at us, then put himself back into the box.

Well, that takes care of that problem. I grinned and rubbed my hands together. The dog got the quills pulled out, the porcupine learned his lesson and he probably won't ever be back.

The problem had been solved without the demise of the lesser-liked party and it looked like we wouldn't have to be burying any porcupines that day.

I was glad.

ONE WEEK LATER

We had gotten an early start that morning with the apple harvest and already customers were out picking Honeycrisp apples. Why so many people were crazy about the fairly common apple was beyond me, but my job was to show people where to get the apples and to pick up the bad ones off the ground. We wanted to make the orchard look clean and tidy.

While I worked on culling apples, my mind wandered to a movie I'd seen a day or two before, called The Russians are Coming. I smiled as I recalled some of the more hilarious scenes and imagined how you could recreate a movie like that in our time. It was only when I'd finished picking up the bruised apples off the ground that I realized I'd heard a dog barking. For quite some time. I had been thinking so hard that I'd almost missed it, but now...

The dog didn't sound like Yogi, but it reminded me of that strange bark I'd heard before when Yogi had found that...

You have got to be kidding me! I smacked my forehead and glared towards the other end of the orchard. He couldn't possibly have found...

Better go find out.

I got onto the gator and drove to the far end of the orchard, where the apple trees ended and the Christmas trees began. I turned off the gator and strained my ears.

Nothing.

I know Yogi's out here. I didn't know where, but he'd stopped barking. I got off the gator, cupped my hands and yelled, "Yooooggggiiii!"

From the Christmas trees came the big golden retriever, his tail wagging a million miles a second, his eyes filled with excitement as he jumped around. I walked into the Christmas trees, the dog following me. I needed to know what he found.

"Go get it, Yogi," I ordered.

Yogi promptly turned around and ran back into the Christmas trees.

I jogged after him, my mind turning over the possibilities as to what the dog had found. Hopefully just another fawn who got stuck in the Christmas trees. Or maybe a skunk... nah I don't want to have to deal with a skunk. Or perhaps-

I rounded the corner and there was Yogi, with the exact same porcupine from before trying to hide under the Christmas trees!

I stared at the porcupine, my heart sinking. "Stupid porcupine!" I exploded. "I wanted you to live!"

The porcupine attempted to stick Yogi in the nose again, but Yogi moved out of his way, sat down and looked up at me proudly.

Back to the deck Yogi went to stay out of the way, then back out to the Christmas trees I went with another box. I moved the porcupine into the box again, and he settled down comfortably, already familiar with the routine. My boss shook his head when I relayed the tale to him.

"I'll deal with him tonight," he told me. "This guy is going to destroy our trees."

I left work that night sad that the dumb porcupine had come back for his final fate. He wouldn't escape this time.

THE NEXT DAY

Or, so I thought.

"He wasn't in there when you came?" I blinked.

"Nope, the porcupine was gone," my boss informed me. "I went out there with Yogi and it wasn't in the box. I think he dug his way out, there was a little hole underneath."

I couldn't believe it. Mr. Porcupine had avoided his fate twice now! He'd better not come back again, or he was really finally going to get it.

That afternoon I went back out to the Christmas trees to retrieve the box. I left the dog behind in case the porcupine was milling around somewhere out there, and headed for the tree I'd left the box under. As I got closer, I went to grab the box- when it moved.

I stepped back and stared as the quills protruded from the box. No. Way.

I got closer and stared.

Mr. Porcupine had returned and had put himself back into the box.

Needless to say, I laughed the whole way back to the house. My boss didn't believe me when I told him the porcupine had returned and put himself into the apple box. Even more surprising- or maybe, the least surprising of all- was when my boss when back out that evening to take care of the porcupine, Mr. Porcupine had made his exit once again.

He never returned, leaving me with one crazy story, my boss with one less porcupine and the dog a lesson about the stickery creatures.

Mr. Porcupine escaped his box three times!