Image: “North American Porcupine,” by a National Park Service employee, 1987, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Porcupine_NPS11952.jpg … public domain
Image: “North American Porcupine,” by a National Park Service employee, 1987, in Wikimedia Commons … https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Porcupine_NPS11952.jpg … public domain
Dear Ones,
At 3:45 am this morning the western Coyotes in the Chatsworth Nature Preserve caught a Rabbit. One of the Coyote pups … a shy one … said they would give it to their Mother who would distribute some to each of them. It sounded to me like a small Rabbit.
Then at 6:20 am … just now, in fact … there was a big uproar and celebration by the eastern Coyote tribe. They were so jubilant that the western Coyote tribe joined in … although somewhat less enthusiastically, as I expect they figured they were not that likely to get much of the anticipated feast.
They said they caught a huge animal. Fearing the worst, I asked what kind of animal it was. One of the Coyote pups indicated with a clairvoyant video ‘short’ that it was not a bipedal walking animal. After a moment another Coyote pup said it was a burrowing animal.
A huge, burrowing animal, I wondered?
Then the second Coyote pup asked around, and said this huge catch was called a Porcupine.
I explained how the Coyotes needed to avoid the quills, but I don’t think the information stuck.
Then, doubting Thomas that I am, I looked this Porcupine up on the internet. I found out that there are Porcupines in Southern California, but they are exceedingly rare. That would account for the fact that the eastern Coyotes at first were not sure of the name of the animal they caught.
Io lux et pax nobiscum.
Joy, light and peace be with us!
— Alice B. Clagett
“Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea; quem timebo?”
The Lord is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
Filmed and published on 1 August 2026
…………..
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0). Attribution: By Alice B. Clagett.
More license information
…………………………………………………….
…………………………………………………….
interspecies communication, mammals, coyotes, rabbits, porcupines,
