Young Porcupine On Solid Foods!

Unexpected Life Dream Realized: A young porcupine crawled into my lap--I didn't even know that was a life dream until it happened. This totally made up for the unexpected, pricey, yet oh so needed, costly vehicle repair today. His handler can now hold him without gloves and as I was taking pictures, he crawled my way. She said, that if I wanted, he would probably crawl on me, and well, he just crawled on my lap...I let him call the shots. No quills were fired. Whew!

The wee porcupet is about three times larger than the last time I saw him. We had the video of him nursing...now brace yourself for him eating solid foods! Today, the woman who is rehabbing him, gave him a piece of banana. You will hear some minute squeaks at the start of the video--are you ready for this? Those are porcupet hiccups!! Wahhhhhhhhhhh!

Here is the video, and trust me, it is SO worth all one minute and twenty-four seconds. This is safe for work, and as a matter of fact, I insist that you show it at work--who could have a bad day after seeing this? It may even prevent a firing.

Porcupet

Digressing from birds for a moment--but it is SO worth it!

Did you know that a young porcupine is called a porcupet? Neither did I! A friend of mine who is a professional wildlife rehabber has an orphaned procupet. It's already socialized to humans so she is continuing that and he will end up at either a zoo or wildlife center.

I'm just a video takin' fool lately and got these must see tvs. First is a nursing porcupet--crank up the sound so you can hear the oh so cute suckling sound as well as his contented little grunts (note the person handling him is wearing leather gloves--those quills are already set for business):



This video is the little porcupet practicing his mad climbing skills on a stool--important to build muscle and strength:



There's one more video here of the porcupet just playin' around here. If I had more time, I'd put a Black-eyed Peas song in the background of this one to go with his odd little grooves. This play is important as he is practicing his defensive moves.

I love livin' in a state with porcupines.