Andrew came running into the house, excitedly saying, “Porcupine, porcupine, you gotta come see, there’s a porcupine out here!” So we trotted outside and over into the neighbor’s yard, where we saw, not a porcupine (porcupines are apparently a new world animal, and are much larger) but a hedgehog. This also gave us an occasion to meet our neighbors to the east, a retired couple named Ian and (I think, my apologies if this is wrong, as I heard it very quickly) Honoria. Apparently hedgehog sightings are fairly rare, as Ian brought out a bucket, covered up the hedgehog so it couldn’t escape, and told his wife to call their son (who lives close by) and have the grandchildren brought over to see the hedgehog. So we all stood around chatting in the front yard, talking about a variety of things (what California is like, what it was like to be a policeman during the Troubles, hedgehog dietary habits, places we’d seen in Ireland, places we should see in Ireland) until the son arrived with his two very young children (in a very nice Audi automobile, similar to ours; there must be more Audi per capita in Ireland than anywhere else, you see them all the time) to view the hedgehog. Ian mentioned that hedgehogs like to drink milk, like cats, so he asked his wife to bring out some milk for the hedgehog, which the hedgehog, despite its obvious fear at being surrounded by people, could not resist. After lapping up some milk, the hedgehog decided to burrow under some tree bark and hide, which it did, and which ended our excitement for the day.
Categories: Travel -- Ireland
Tags: hedgehog