Penny
May 18, 2020
On May 18th, 2020 we received a call about a hit by car porcupine and a baby laying in the road cuddled up to the deceased mother. She was tiny and dehydrated and still had her umbilical stump so we knew she was only a few days old. When I realized she was a female I knew I had my work cut out for me. Female porcupines are notorious for being very grumpy.
Exploring the outside
Once she was well hydrated we weaned her onto formula and began taking her outside for short foraging adventures. Although porcupines are nocturnal animals they often get sun when sleep out on tree limbs and newborns do not climb trees for many weeks so they are foraging on the ground in between naps.
She didn't grow MUCH
She remained relatively small for quite a while but she was a great eater and I gotta say she was one of the MOST ADORABLE PORCUPINES EVER!!! She was built like a teddy bear and she had the cute personality to go with it.
She was very photogenic
August 2020
Time to move outside?
By 3 months old she was still on formula but able to be moved outside. What we didn't know was something was brewing. Within a week of her moving outside she developed loose stool and flies took advantage of her. We took her back inside. Sadly, she passed away after a few days of fighting to save her life. I cried for days and beat myself up for failing her. But because of her, we have new protocols for transitioning porcupines outside to pre-release enclosures. Just because the old ones worked for many before her, she helped make things better for the future.
