The vernal (spring) equinox is approaching and I went for a good walk at dusk. A chickadee, a mourning dove, and a white-winged dove were calling from the trees along the road. Two or three frogs conversed among themselves in tinny erratic sounds. Deer went crashing and splashing through the dammed part of the creek as I approached. A few water bugs were zipping about. There were goats with bells on their collars, ringing as they browsed. There were tufts of wild grasses that brought to mind porcupines.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a porcupine. The first I ever saw was in the late 1970s just west of Crater Lake, Oregon. It was toddling across the forested road as dawn approached. The next 13 porcupines that crossed my path were all in one evening in Alberta near Kicking Horse Pass in the Canadian Rockies. We were driving after a hike, and at every curve in the road, there was one or three or two porcupines. I counted eleven, and that number held the record for only a few minutes before we came upon two more!

Visiting a chateau in the town of Blois, France, early 1990s, I was surprised to see the porcupine as a kind of royal family emblem, dating back several centuries, gleaming in gold above a mantel in the great room. A curious and beautiful antiquity – I was pleased to discover the quilled beasty respected so far across the ocean from the wilderness where I’d first cheerfully met them.