A WILDLIFE TALE

“A WILDLIFE TALE”

 

This wildlife tale starts out something like this. Once upon a time there was a porcupine mother and her little babies that were crossing a country road when a car passing by hit one of her babies. The baby porcupine was too injured to go on. The mother had to abandon the baby to insure the survival of the others.

 

Another compassionate motorist came by and saw the injured baby. They took it to a Vet here in town. This vet is a very special guy. He loves animals and treats wild orphans for free. He stitched up the baby, gave it antibiotics and then came the problem. Who is going to raise this baby? 

That’s where we came into the picture.

 Here is the baby on his first day. 

He was traumatized and scared. It took some time to get him to accept the bottle but finally he realized we were trying to help him.

This is Rhulani our housekeeper. She is one of the family and cares for all the orphans we adopt when we are traveling. She’s more like a sister than an employee.

There are some sacrifices  one has to make when raising a wild animal. This is some of the damage he did to our house. Considering the damage we have done to "his" environment, I gave him a pass!

He loves sweet corn.

 Try not to spoil them. It makes it more difficult when it comes time to release them.

Here he is resting after a hard day of dining!

  

 Here he is resting on his hot water bottle with a towel rolled up as a pillow. I said we “tried” not to spoil him. I didn’t say we succeeded.

We named him Howie after a dog on the “dog whisperer”.  Later we nicknamed him “Patitas”. In Spanish it means the one with the little feet. Patitas likes to sleep under my bed. The problem is porcupines are nocturnal. So when he wanted to play he would wake me up between 1 AM and 3 AM to play, “catch me if you can.” He would chase me around the work island in the kitchen. Then I would chase him around the island. This would go on for an hour or two almost every night. Fortunately we don’t have any neighbors nearby. People think I’m strange enough. If they saw me running in circles in the kitchen at 3 AM they would have me committed I’m sure.

He is a very gentle guy. He never puts up a fuss. He even shares his food with other orphans. Here he is enjoying his strawberry yogurt.

 He loves to interact with people.

  It wasn’t long before we noticed him staring out the door into the Bush, smelling the smells and probably thinking about his former life. It was time to release him back into the wild. So, one night with a heavy heart, we opened the back gate and watched as he disappeared into the darkness. We wondered if we would ever see him again. We wondered how we would recognize him if we did!

Well the next night I couldn’t help but take a look out the back door. There was a black shadow right near the gate. I walked out and there he was!! I opened the gate and let him in. We made him a little snack. Yogurt (strawberry), 2 ears of corn, an apple, sunflower seeds, Philadelphia cream cheese, 

( how did he acquire a taste for Philadelphia cream cheese? He's never even been in Philly.) some pasta (with mushroom sauce) and 4 chocolate covered raisins for desert. Oh yeah, and a cup of coffee when it is cold at night.

He comes back every night, eats, then crawls onto our camping mattress and we all fall asleep watching the stars go by. After a few hours he gets up and returns to his burrow not far from the house.

   

This is why we call him "Patitas".

This is what he looks like now!

 

This little guy never fails to put a smile on my face. I hope this story put one on yours. Until next time take care. Oh yeah, the moral to this story is “if you see an animal that needs help—help him out.”  The rewards far out weigh the sacrifices.

 Have a great week and take care.