my great porcippine adventure.

about two years ago hubby and i went out shopping for a pot and pan rack to go over our stove in the basement. we found one brought it home and installed it. he said would be nice if we had all our cast iron pots and pans hanging from this . so i said sure would be let me dig them out of all the camping gear. so off i go over to the other end of the basement where we had this shelf that is about 5 ft off the ground where we keep all the camping gear. i grab the light cord to put the light on so i can see only it isnt working the light bulb is out. so i go to the next light to pull that cord and nothing again . i grab the flash light and think ok i can do this. point it ahead of me towards the shelf which i am now standing about two feet from facing it only to see this huge procippine sitting there on the camping gear looking straight at me. i jump back yell there is a porcippine here on the shelf. hubby says no it cant be must be a cat . he isnt moving to help me at all just talking to me from the stove area. i tell him no its not a cat i know what a blank blank cat looks like this is a procippine and its a big one. he comes over to see i am still backing away from it slowly. dont want this thing upset with me, i dont want a face full of quills. hubby sees what it is and gets me out of there asap. we go upstairs cause the thing was backing away too. and call the animal control. he gets off the phone says they wont come ,told me to call fish and game. said they no longer pull porcippines out of peoples houses. so he calls fish and game they tell him the same thing tell him to call the state troppers who pass him along to the city police. this is getting fustrating so i tell him call the animal control again tell them they have to help us .i cant have this here in the house with the children coming to stay today tell them i run a babysitting service for the kids and i need this out of here asap. so he does. and they agree to come over.
now our basement is all dirt with a 6 ft celing in places we were able at that to make space for something of a rec room , insolte it and the like ,but in actuality its still a dirt basement. not to cold in the winter with the help fo a stove down there. so the animal control people show up and the chase is on. around and around all of them go with flash lights in hand. they corner the thing in a corner and the next thing i hear is this scream out of one of the guys . he got a leg full of porcipine quills out of it all. poor thing. we later had to plug several holes in the walls where the cats had dug them to use as cat doors in the night and day to get in and out of. grrrrrrrrrrrr. i tell you life in alaska is never dull ,winter ,summer or fall.

one other time about oh maybe 5 years back or so give or take . were driving home from our daughters place after a night of playing uno with the family . have to cross the bridge to do so. and in the middle of the road is this black thing . an animal about the size of a german shepard. sitting on its hind legs in the middle of the road. we slow down and i ask what the heck is that? i couldnt tell in the dark. hubby says its a porcippine . we had to stop and wait for it to cross the road before we proceed. well this thing decided to use the walk way on the bridge going in the same direction as we were. we dove over the bridge and came down toward the stop light only to see a teen aged boy using the crossing walk for the bridge ,in the opposite direction. i told hubby we better stop and warn him there is a porcippine using that path. he is to tired says the kid will see him soon enough . i am alittle upset and were still driving. not slowing down. i look over my shoulder in the direction the kid is at only to see moments later he is jumping over the railing into the middle of the bridge . guess he saw the proccpine walking towards him :))))))) and off the kid ran LOL