My Porcupine Day

Live porcupine at dawn in tree

Ever had a porcupine day?

A day where porcupines appeared everywhere?

(Or perhaps you’ve had a squirrel day, or a deer day, or a coyote day.  Perhaps you’ve had a bear day, or a wolf day, or a raccoon day.)

Porcupine home

I have been walking in the woods a LOT the last few days.  An hour, two hours of trotting and stalking and sitting and peering into unexpected holes in trees. 

One never knows what one might find. 

Looking up at porcupine home

Does everyone know exactly what a porcupine is?  Do you know what family it belongs to?  Yes, it’s the rodent family. 

Here is a nice definition to satisfy your intellectual or scientific side:  Porcupine belongs to the rodent family. It is heavyset, nocturnal and herbivorous. Porcupine has a blunt-nosed face, small eyes, and small round ears. Its head is small and its body is 25 to 40 inches long. It weights 10 to 40 lbs. Its legs are powerful and its feet are curved claws making it slow-footed but strong. Its two large, front gnawing teeth continues to grow as long as porcupine lives.

Porcupine’s most distinguishing characteristic is its long, yellowish guard hair which covers the front of its body, while up to 30,000 quills grow from the head to the tail. The 2 to 6 inch quills are set with tiny, scale-like barbs. The North American porcupine is found in heavily wooded regions from Alaska to the northern extreme of Mexico. This animal lives in hollow logs and holes. Porcupine may look clumsy but it is an excellent tree climber. The animal’s diet consist of the bark of trees, young leaves, twigs and green plants. Porcupine loves salt and it will eat nearly anything with a salty flavor.

Porcupine’s enemies are the fisher, mountain lion, bobcat, and coyote. When threatened, its quills stand up. Porcupine places its snout between its forelegs and presents its rear to its enemies. If attacked it drives its tail against its enemy and dozens of quills detach from its body and are embedded in the body of its attacker.

A dead porcupine

First, I glimpsed the porcupine’s home.  Then I stumbled upon the dead porcupine.  Settled down next to it–OK, with a little uneasiness–trying to be respectful of the giant fellow.

My first question:  was he really dead?  Answer:  yes, he apparently was dead.  I thought, however, of the possibility that he was playing “possum”. You know, where an animal freezes and pretends not to exist. 

However, upon close examination of his unblinking almost hollowed-out eye, I determined he was dead.  He did not smell.  Which lead me to believe that a) he perhaps died during the winter and just recently thawed or b) he recently died and had not yet started to decompose.  A small pile of leaves rested on his body near the back. 

Up close to a dead porcupine (fine & silky hair mixed with sharp lethal quills)

Here is my imaginary story:  he died after living a good full life.  He looked big and old.  I believe he was a porcupine Grandfather.  (OK, he could have been a Porcupine Grandmother, but then I’d have to go back and change all the pronouns.  Plus didn’t want to disturb the porcupine and attempt to identify its sex.  No.  I probably couldn’t figure it out anyway.)

Ball of porcupine high in the tree silhouetted against morning sky

This morning I spotted a porcupine sitting high in a tree.  In less than twenty-four hours:  porcupine home, dead porcupine, live porcupine. 

‘Twas indeed the Day of the Porcupine.  The morning, noon and night of the Porcupine. 

P.S.  A Power Animal on-line site advises this as the spiritual message of the porcupine:  

Porcupines message can be sharp and get under the skin of the person that it attacks. If porcupine is your power animal learn to think before you speak. You are protected from your enemy but try not to wound others with words. You are an opportunist, sensitive, resourceful and creative. If you have been ” stung” in the past by an unkind person it is now time to let go, forgive and forget. Try not to be too defensive; you are a wonderful person when you give others the opportunity to know you.  

Hmmm….will have to think about that.  Just don’t any of you say anything mean to me right now!  You better watch it…these quills might fly!  🙂