When anticipating a visit to Earthfire for a custom visit or retreat, most people look forward to meeting our bears, wolves, mountain lion, and bison. They can’t wait to meet wolves Kaya or Tanaka the gentleman; brother bears Ramble and Bramble; and matriarch of the pasture, Bluebell. However, very few put much thought into meeting our sanctuary porcupine, Teddy.
Visits typically start at the pasture, followed by the wolf garden. We then cross over to the senior fox garden, where Sprite and Lightfoot lounge peacefully in the shade of a pine tree. Our next stop is the small (in size only) guy compound, where the foxes and coyotes live. Visitors are so captivated by the excitement and scent of the foxes (they have a musky scent similar to a skunk) and sight of the coyotes that they don’t notice the quiet little enclosure nestled between the two species. Inside that enclosure, a prickly personality sits quietly, waiting to be noticed. He vocalizes softly to get their attention. When they turn around, visitors are surprised to find Teddy lounging outside his den box.
Is that a porcupine?! I’ve never seen a porcupine! Is he making that noise?
And, just like that, Teddy has new fans. They fall in love with him. I mean, how can they not? He is utterly himself and utterly charming. He loves his heat lamp and he loves to be sung to—two of his favorites are “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and “You Are my Sunshine.” On multiple occasions, visitors have broken out into song while Teddy happily chirps along.
Recently, I was inside Teddy’s enclosure refilling his water bowl. He decided to climb down from his elevated den box to approach me. Affection is always on Teddy’s terms, and it doesn’t happen often. That day, he decided to express his affection by slowly waddling across the enclosure towards me. He timidly sniffed the toe of my foot. He then moved closer and investigated the bottom of my pants. He inched closer and closer and continued to sniff higher up my leg. Eventually, he stood on his hind legs and rested his front paws below my knee, leaning his weight against me. He was practically wrapped around my leg. As his nose moved over me and his inspection continued, I encouraged him gently and he looked up at me. Enjoying the beautiful moment with him, I was caught off-guard when he tilted his head back and suddenly sneezed. Not a little sneeze. A full-bodied, shake-every-quill sneeze.
Since he was standing between my legs, I immediately froze. Please, please do not let any of his quills touch my legs! Many people are under the misconception that porcupines shake or shoot their quills, but their quills need to come into contact with another object to release. Getting quilled first thing in the morning, for the first time ever, was definitely not something I had on my to-do list that day.
I squeezed my eyes shut and held my breath, not moving a muscle. When the sneeze ended and he stopped shaking, I exhaled, looked down at him, and said a quick, “Bless you, Teddy!” We enjoyed a few more moments together before he dropped to the ground and decided to get a drink of water. After exiting his enclosure, I turned to him and laughed lightly to myself. Not that it was his intention to quill me, but that could have been bad. I will always remember the day Teddy sneezed on me.
