On Sundays, I hope to do a few things: go for a jog with my dog, sit and knit, read and drink coffee. However last Sunday, my cursed hyper-sensitive porcupine radar was alerted as I sat and stripped off my running shoes on the front porch; a small, round creature was leisurely crossing the driveway 150 yards away between me and the cranberry marsh. Unmistakable mix of carefree and focused – a porcupine. The dog. She knew something was up, she’s got hyper-sensitive Britt radar. I ushered her into the house.
And then, like the superhero I am, I sprung into action. I grabbed a laundry basket, of course.
When catching the second largest North American rodent with a laundry basket, it is important to remember that having some sort of lid is a smart idea. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself chasing an upside-down laundry basket around the woods, quills poking out the grids. Now I know, but instead I had to sit on the laundry basket while pulling dead tree branches from under the carpet of red pine needles, and piling them on top of the laundry basket to hold it still long enough for me to run back to the house and grab a lid from a storage bin and some bungee cords.
If you ever need to catch a porcupine and all you have is a laundry basket and a mismatched bin lid and some bungee cords, do not fear. Simply slide the bin lid under the laundry basket containing the porcupine, and carefully, watching for quills and the sharp little porcupine claws, turn the basket right-side-up. Then criss-cross the bungee cords making sure they are firmly attached at all ends.
Also, it is important to remember not to drive your little truck directly into the swampy portion of the logging road in order to get as close as possible. Lucky for me, I knew my husband was busy on the 
marsh, so i was able to retrieve his truck and transfer the laundry-basket-with-porcupine from my swamp-stuck truck into his four-wheel drive truck, and now the story ends happily. I relocated the porcupine (I’d decided it was a ‘he’ at this point, for no real reason) to an undisclosed spot where I set him free from his laundry basket prison, and he waddled off to explore his new home.
