Earlier this month, the team at Austin Wildlife Rescue welcomed a spiky new resident — a young porcupine who’d been found dazed and struggling behind a woman’s home in Texas. She was suffering from a respiratory infection and mange, but with treatment and a little TLC, she quickly perked up.
And before long, she decided she was in charge.
“She’s now running the facility!” rescuers joked.
But even the bossiest porcupine has her limits.
During a routine cleaning of her living space, caretakers had to place her in a short “time-out” to keep her safe. The little porcupine, however, did not approve of this interruption — and she made sure everyone knew it.
“No matter the species, toddler tantrums are all the same,” rescuers wrote. “She was feeling a little prickly about getting her crate cleaned, so she spent a few minutes free-roaming our office … but that wasn’t to her liking either.”
They shared an adorable video of the moment — the tiny porcupine stamping, squeaking, and puffing herself up in protest.
“So here she is in all her glory … the most dramatic baby porcupine throwing a fit.”
Though she may have been miffed by the disruption to her day, this little porcupine is clearly in good hands.
“This little girl knows she runs the show around here,” said Kathryn Mattison, operations manager at Austin Wildlife Rescue. “As soon as her crate was clean and ready, she calmed right down. Of course, she wasn’t really interested in the crate — she just wanted to get into mischief.”
This year, Austin Wildlife Rescue expects to care for more than 10,000 injured or orphaned animals, nursing each one back to health before releasing them into the wild. And if all goes well, this spirited, tantrum-prone porcupine will soon join them.
“We have very high hopes for her,” Mattison said. “We’ll keep caring for her as she grows and learns how to be a porcupine — attitude and all.”
Learn more about Austin Wildlife Rescue and how you can help here.
