Scat By Any Other Name

We put off going to the cottage yesterday because of some nasty weather. Instead we went to see "Up". We saw the 3-D version which I wasn't sure Riley would sit through because of the glasses and the effect, but with some toilet paper shoved in his ears to dull the jacked up sound, he made it through with just a handful of moments hiding in my lap. A terrific, terrific film full of metaphors and visually lovely. It's the kind of film you want to buy after you've see it, and that coming from me who doesn't much see the value of owning a film you've already watched.

But this morning after a little dithering, we packed up the car and headed north. I'm happy to report that with the exception of a few droppings here and there, the bulk of which were in Riley's room (drats! going to have to find the hole they are creeping through to get in there), it was a varmint free house. The only other wildlife was your standard lot of houseflies, which had all died of natural causes, so within a couple of hours the house was cleaned down and we are now ready for the next block of time when we can go and just have fun. There were a couple of mysterious piles of scat on the main deck, though, which puzzled us to no end. While cleaning it up, we were analyzing the details, trying to figure out what on earth could have left the deposits. You know, bigger than a breadbox but smaller than a car. There were a couple of standard piles and another couple that had been left up on a stack of logs. I was wracking my brain, thinking what kind of animal would bother to climb up to take care of business as most wild ones usually just drop as they go. These were deliberate collections. I didn't think to whip out my camera for some reason but I'm gathering you are all grateful that I didn't. When my handyman came by we talked about it and showed him the evidence and he pronounced it porcupine poo. B-I-G porcupine. Now I need to find a natural deterrent for porcupines as one of my dogs will certainly be getting a snoot full of quills unless we can relocate it. Right now I need to go and nurse the 18 blackfly bites I have on my neck. They went for the jugular.