I do not get it!  Why is there a constant need by animals to either break into my homestead or break out?  I have fenced, re-fenced and double fenced my homestead, but it feels like every time I do it, there is an animal waiting on the sidelines thinking “challenge accepted!”

The hyenas broke in when they were trying to exhume my dearly departed dog Lukenya. They failed. That was the same night that my one brain celled rottweiler (Kronk) tried to break out of the compound.  He too failed.

Then there was the kanga-rabbit, aka Spring Hare who broke in and was quickly dispatched to hare heaven by my intolerant dogs.  Poor hare!  Let’s not forget my cat Mitten who spent his life breaking in and out of the house until he finally ran away. And even after he ran away, he still tried to break back in once but failed.

The last break out attempt by my dogs, which was successful, was when my dear groundskeepers took them to the back side of the homestead, where we have the vegetable garden bordering an open space. The idea was for them to scare away the squirrels and birds that were laying our vegetable garden to waste.  The dogs, led by the sisters Didi and Coco and the hapless Kronk jumped the fence and went to chase after gazelles instead.  Vegetables be damned!  When my grounds keeper went to get them, they tried to attack him.  They were having fun and he was being a buzz kill.  Eventually we got them back home and we have not let them go to that back side again.

Well, I am now re-considering that decision.  You see, we had a break-in a couple of nights back.  By a porcupine! This guy did some thinking before he broke in.  My maize has ripened to that stage where you get the most delicious tasting boiled maize full of natural sugar and flavor.  The porcupine must have figured that this is the side of the homestead not patrolled by the dogs, and also, least visited by the humans.  So, a couple of nights back he broke in for the first time.  We were clueless until one of the groundskeepers went to pick some maize for their evening meal, only to find a crime scene.  Maize stalks on the ground, half eaten maize, some peeled and left on the ground.  The porcupine had chosen the sweetest, softest maize and eaten that.  He left the rest either on the ground or untouched.

My groundskeeper came and reported the incident, and the clever detectives we all are, we stood in a cluster and thought this through.  Two of my grounds’ keepers followed the telltale paw prints and after much thinking and deduction, we concluded we had been raided by a porcupine.  We set about reinforcing the fence to ensure he could not get in or out again, and we even set a trap.  He must have been watching us and thinking “challenge accepted!”

The following night, he broke in again.  This time, the dogs were a lot more alert, or maybe he got careless, as the dogs raised the alarm.  They barked incessantly, and for long.  Two of my grounds’ keepers got up to check on the racket.  This was around two in the morning.  When I got up, I heard my housekeeper and the groundskeepers discussing the second heist, so I went off to see what had happened.  The porcupine had come back and he had not used the route with the trap either in or out.  Smart fellow!  The carnage in the maize field was worse than it had been the night before.  We harvested what we could and gave the remnants to the chickens.

We need a plan! A plan to keep out a determined porcupine and keep in equally determined dogs.  For now, we will keep reinforcing the fence as we figure out what to do next. In the meantime, the scores are in – Porcupine: 10, Humans: Nil!!