Prickly the Porcupine

Prickly likes to eat. He eats leaves and acorns and tree bark. Why Prickly even stuffs food into his mouth with both his front paws and chews it rapidly with his strong teeth. He eats so much and so fast he hasn't time for good manners. Yes, Prickly likes to eat better than anything else in the world. If you could ask him what his favorite food is, he'd answer, "Salt." Salt is Prickly's favorite food. On this bright morning, Prickley thought how wonderful it would be to have a whole meal of salt. M. So off he went through the woods to hunt for salt. He walked through the woods until he came to a big field. What was beyond the field? Prickley just had to find out. What he found was a wire fence. But Prickley wasn't going to let that stop him. He was looking for a way to get through the fence when he saw, can you imagine what he saw? He saw cows. >> They were standing around a big white block. Some of them were licking it. It was a block of pure salt. Prickly's mouth watered. He really wanted some salt, but the wire fence was in the way, and the cows looked so big. Prickley would have to find salt somewhere else. Maybe over there near the farm buildings he could find salt. But first he would have to find a way to get past that fence. [snorts] He couldn't crawl under. So he just had to squeeze through there. Now to get going. When he reached the farm buildings, Prickley started to hunt for salt. But where could he find it? Was there any salt in the barn? Prickley sniffed at the door. And if there was salt inside, how could he get to it? What was that noise? A tractor. It might hit Prickly. It wasn't afraid of his sharp quills. Poor Prickly. First the cows had frightened him. Then the tractor frightened him even more. But he wasn't too frightened to stop and nibble on a plant. Maybe here was a safe place to hunt for salt. But there was a new noise. What was it this time? It was a farm boy and his sister. They were making ice cream. They were using a hand turned ice cream freezer. The ice cream is in a can in the center. And all around the can is ice. And what else? Salt to melt the ice and freeze the ice cream. Salt. Here's where Prickley could find his salt. If only those people weren't there. But look, they were finished making ice cream. They were taking the shiny can of ice cream out of the freezer to carry it into the house. And they were leaving all that salt. This was Prickly's chance. He started toward the freezer. He was so hungry for salt he could almost taste it. But he moved carefully because there was something in the way, something he hadn't seen before. Clothes hung out to dry and hanging right where Prickly wanted to go. Prickly didn't know what to make of it, but it didn't seem very frightening, and he did want that salt. So he decided to go ahead. And do you know what happened when he went past the farmer's night shirt? Some of his quills stuck to it. The farmer would certainly have to pull them out before he put on his night shirt. At last, Prickley reached the freezer. He was so hungry for a taste of salt that he even began to eat the wooden freezer. Does this taste good? Some salt had spilled on the ground, too. You see, he liked salt just as much as you like candy. Prickley had just decided that the salt on the wooden freezer tasted best of all when suddenly the farmer's dog came running toward him. At first, Prickley was just curious about the dog. But when the dog kept running closer, Prickley raised his quills and turned his back on the dog. The dog wanted to frighten Prickly away, but when he saw that whole back full of sharp, pointed quills. He didn't dare bite. What would happen next? The children had heard the barking, and when they saw the dog with the porcupine, they ran toward them. Now Prickley was really frightened, but it was the dog the children ran to. They were afraid that Prickley's sharp quills would hurt him. Prickly was glad that was over with. Now he could go on eating salt with the dogs safely shut up in the barn. But then he saw that the children were coming right toward him. What would they do? Prickly wondered if he should run away. The children were talking, talking about what to do with Prickley. They seemed friendly enough, but still Prickley thought it might be best if he went back into the woods and forgot about the salt. But the children were calling him back. And can you tell what else they were going to do? They were putting out some salt. A whole pile of salt just for Prickly. Prickley could hardly believe it. He was glad he hadn't run away. Children had been kind to him. Now he had all the salt he could possibly eat. In fact, there was more salt than he could eat. But now he knew where he could come back another day when he wanted salt. So, he was going back to his home in the woods. And that is the story of Prickley's got a porcupine. What [music] kind of story could you make up about him? Wouldn't it be fun [music] to take a trip to the zoo to find out more about porcupines like Prickly? [music]