January Thaw

The snow recedes and the ice turns to mush as we have our 'January thaw'. It's a typical weather phenomenon that occurs usually in the middle of January after a period of fridgid cold. The thermometer will creep above freezing and even venture into the 40's.
The birds will flock to the feeders and the squirrels will even awaken for a little poke around the yard. We seem to have a family of flying squirrels in the attic this year and they have managed to chew a hole through the entryway and gained access to the bags of birdseed we keep stored there. I'll have to get a metal can and start setting the have-a-heart traps again.
I trapped 9 squirrels last Fall and dropped them off down the road. The last 5 I drove a little further away, because I'm not so sure that they were't traveling back to the old homestead. I saw a couple of squashed squirrels in the road between me and the drop off place, so I'm sure they were my squirrels trying to find their way home.
Now we have a resident porcupine. He has a made a home out behind the tarp on the north side of the wood pile. I call him Porky and he loves compost scraps and is very found of pears. I read somewhere they make good pets. I think the dog knows he is around, but I'm trying to discourage him from being too comfy in the yard.
Jeff has found him on the porch steps twice and a couple of weeks ago he scratched at our bedroom door in the middle of the night just after I'd let the dog in. I opened the door, thinking one of the cats had gotten out. Luckily he is slow and I realized my mistake and shut the door before he was able to stroll into our bedroom. In the dark. At 3 am. While I was wearing my nightshirt and had bare feet.
I slammed the door and banged on it and he sort of ambled off. Still shaking I woke up Jeff and told him that the porcupine had scratched on the door and I'd almost let it in. He said something like :Well, they do make good pets" and went back to sleep. I could not sleep. I could not stop laughing.