A prickly affair...

We were invited to family friends for dinner, at their beautiful home in a location I shall not here disclose, on Wednesday night.  The weather hasn't been great and the idea of going anywhere further than the couch in front of my heater, or my electrically warmed bed seemed absurd.  However the idea of coming up close and personal to a fully grown porcupine eating his dinner on their stoep was too much and so we bundled up into the car and headed off on our mini great trek half way across Cape Town.  At night.  In the cold.  And boy, oh boy, was it worth it!  We had a delicious soup and hamburger supper to warm us up and we were treated to a most amazing encounter.

Above is Jake feeding the porcupine a carrot by hand through the sliding door.  Below, he watches closely as the porcupine munches on a tasty tattie.  There are 3 porcies that visit, a little family.  The baby is incredibly skittish and I don't have any photos of it and the mommy was foraging for her dinner elsewhere.  The male seemed pretty unconcerned by our presence...

 I love this picture with Jake's reflection in the glass.  It shows you just how big these nocturnal rodents actually are...

 Amber once came on the wrong side with one of these when we were living on the farm.  She got jabbed in the muzzle with about 5 or 6 quills, which she managed to break off at their point of entry, but still let Jacques pull them out with tweezers.  Check out this guy's funny little prickly tail.  One can't help but wonder how do these creatures go about the whole reproduction/childbirth thing.  I know the babies quills are very soft, but still, let's just say I'm glad I'm not a porcupine...

 There was one straggly quill sticking out the side of the porcupine.  I think he was just keeping his "eye" on Jake.  Jake wanted that quill...

 Nom, nom, nom...  I think if they'd put a whole veggie shop out on the stoep, this guy would've cleaned them out...

 One last one...

These special family friends of ours have all kinds of wildlife vising them.  There are spotted genet's and otters and penguins and dassies (rock rabbits) and baboons - it's like going on safari when we visit them!!

The friends we visited have been friends for as long as I can remember.  We don't see them often enough, but it's always like being with family when we're together.  We've had many family holidays, both local and international, together and Jake has even been known to refer to Auntie K as his other granny.  I'm sure they'll be checking passed here to see if I've put up any pictures, so just to say a quick thank you so much for thinking of us, especially Jake.  You know him so well and you know that this was right up his ally.  A definite holiday highlight for him and one that he'll be sure to tell his teacher and class about on Monday morning!  Thanks again for the lovely dinner too.

Sue X

PS.  I need to learn how to take better night time photos.  It was dark and I had my camera on manual focus, so sorry for the blurred ones.  I also SERIOUSLY need to invest in PhotoShop...