How Do You Love a Porcupine?

Very carefully!

Last spring we were delighted to welcome our first volunteers of the year. Simone arrived from Germany in late March and then Nadine joined us from Germany by way of Costa Rica a few days later. Simone committed to a stay of three months and departed as planned unlike Nadine who committed to three weeks and stayed and stayed and stayed.

The girls had been here with us for only a couple of days when a call came through on the emergency telephone from a very upset woman advising of a porcupine on the side of the road having been hit by a car and injured. I raced to the Sanctuary to pick up a crate, blankets, snare pole and all the other necessities for catching up animals and asked the girls if they would like to come along.  Absolutely!!!!

We had to drive about 25 minutes and by the time we arrived night was starting to creep up on us. We were greeted by no less than 4 vehicles of voyeurs all of whom had great advice for capturing the porcupine. By this time the well intentioned masses had herded the poor thing down an embankment and into the bush. Well, no one said that wildlife rescue was going to be easy.

Simone grabbed the crate and Nadine and I led the way down the embankment and through the bush to where the porcupine had last been seen. Fortunately it didn’t take too long to find the poor soul. She was curled up by a log, obviously in great discomfort.  We donned our gloves and made ready with blankets for the big catch up. Cautioning comments rained down on us from above us about  the painful results of quills imbedded  in flesh when the porcupine took it upon herself to waddle into the crate with little to no effort required on our part.  It was as if she knew that she needed to be rescued in order to get better. While we were grateful that the animal was so cooperative it did nothing for our egos especially when the crowd dispersed once realizing there would be no spectacular rescue. They should have stayed for the entertainment as now we had to make the climb UP the embankment. Having rained all day the hill had become a virtual mud slide. It was not a pretty sight, we three women pushing a large crate up a hill and then clambering after it while trying desperately hard not to slide back down into oblivion.

Princess became a favourite at the Sanctuary. There is nothing like a porcupine. They are the most benign of creatures. They possess a face like no other animal. One look into those eyes and only the hardest of hearts would not fall in love with these beautiful animals. As wonderful as these creatures may be they do come equipped for fending off prey with incredibly sharp quills that penetrate painfully as I discovered a week later when dressing one morning. I was donning the jeans that I had worn for the porcupine rescue which had since been laundered and in doing so received a really nasty poke in the backside. It took some investigation but eventually I was able to find a quill that had been caught in the seam of my jeans that had survived through washing and drying to act as a reminder that as adorable as she was, Princess the porcupine was very much a wild animal.