Taking a cigarette break to pet a porcupine

fallcolor2Yes, you can pet a porcupine. If you haven’t already seen the gazillion Cute Porcupine videos out there on them thar tubes, google something like “pet a porcupine” or “porcupine eating pumpkin” or whatever. Some of the people out there are even petting them without glubs.

I think I grok what it takes to pet a porcupine without having to spend hours at the ER (and then having them deny your insurance claim because they can’t figger out that you have legitimate health insurance coverage because you have a different name than your spouse — IN 2015!!!! !!!! !!!! I had fewer problems with this IN THE 1980s when I gave birth to my children! The claim has been resubmitted and that is all.).

Where was I? Oh yeah. First a disclaimer that any unknown aminal should be approached with caution.

Most of the porcupines in the videos I watched are in rescue facilities, where they are being rehabbed and have become accustomed to the people who work with them. The people who are petting them (with or without gloves) are very well trained about how to deal with wild aminals of all sorts. I am not sure I could ever do that kind of work but I do know that if you want to make friends with a porcupine (or dog or cat or small child), you have to gain its trust. You do that by not rushing in, grabbing it up in your arms, kissing, hugging, talking baby talk, whatever. You sit back until the baby or pet or wild aminal decides you aren’t going to make any sudden moves and maybe it might be okay to approach you.

And then there are a few of my facebook high school yooperland friends. They look at these porcupine videos and say something like, “Yeah, those aminals are cute but they are not cute when they are chewing on my shed instead of all of the squash and stuff in the compost heap.” Indeed.

Please do not approach wild aminals unless you know how to deal with them. Especially bears. Of all sorts.

I needed to take a wee bit of a break this afternoon. I told my co-workers I was taking a cigarette break. They all laughed their you-know-whats off. I love them.

One Response to “Taking a cigarette break to pet a porcupine”

  1. Margaret Says:

    I don’t like wild animals except from a very long distance, especially BEARS. Your name is different from your spouses and mine is hyphenated which really confuses people. Why would anyone DO THAT? They feel like it’s OK to tell me that they would never do so, think it’s dumb, etc. Sometimes people can be annoying.