Out with Romany

Or how Rag lost Tag and Bobtail.

We are imprinted in early childhood. I read the Romany books (still have a couple) and watched (with mother of course) Rag, Tag and Bobtail. This evening in steady rain I went out with a torch looking for owls. Of course, sporting a pair of spectacles makes it tricky as the rain obscures the vision as you scan the higher tree branches. So that drew a blank but crossing the road behind me was a large shadowy creature that I expected to be a small boar. On closer examination it turned out to be a rather large Rag, Hystrix hodgesoni or the Chinese porcupine [see Hill & Phillipps: Hong Kong Animals]. The tome says it is 60-90cm in length and weighs 7-14kg. Well it certainly looked good for a top end of that to me but maybe it is like the fish that got away. They always look bigger when they escape.

Anyway, barely 4 days in to the new home and already things are looking good. So despite the fact that Rag slunk rapidly but sedately into the trees out of sight I was able to go home with a warm glow, owl-less in Sai Kung but up one porcupine. Wonderful.