Spike

A lady rang one day saying she had visitors who had brought her an injured echidna.  What should she do?  I asked her what had happened, and from what she told me it sounded as though the echidna was a victim of a traffic accident, but my ears really pricked up when she said it had a baby, especially when she said how small it was.  So I took her number and details, and rang Sue straight away.  Sue immediately rang her, and organised picking up mum and baby.  In the course of her conversation, she gleaned further details about the incident.  It seems the echidna was just on the side of the road, minding its own business, and these people came past, and concerned that it may get injured staying there, decided to pick it up, and take it with them (instead of attempting to get it to move off the road under its own steam).  As most of you would be aware, it’s not an easy task picking up an echidna, but our intrepid pair did.  Then they put said echidna not in a box, or a container of some sort, but on the floor in the back of the car.  Now when they arrived at their friend’s place, the echidna had taken up residence under the front seat of the car, and wedged itself there.  To get her out, they had to practically dismantle the insides of the car, and this time, while getting her out, she and her baby (whom nobody even realised existed at this stage) parted company.  They attempted to reunite them, but mum was not interested, she just curled herself up in a little ball, and in the process managed to injure the baby, piercing its leg with one of her quills.  The baby was a sort of grey colour, completely smooth, but the grey colour was caused by the spikes and hair getting ready to grow.  Its eyes were closed, and ear canals were closed too.  It fitted in the palm of Sue’s hand.

So Sue picked up the pair, and attempted to get mum to accept the baby once more.  Each time mum refused, so after a few days, Sue released the mother, and started feeding the baby. The baby is still in care, and has recovered from its leg wound (not without major hassles), and now looks like a miniature echidna, with a full compliment of spikes, complete with the sailor’s walk as it wanders along.  It is very used to its milk, and if Sue has to handle it, out comes the tongue in anticipation.  It only gets fed every other day.  Last time I spoke to Sue, she was getting ready to find some termites for it, so it is definitely growing up.  It is also becoming a bit of an escape artist, looking for every opportunity to burrow out of its little container.  It has been a challenge to look after in the hot weather, because it has to be kept cool, as though it was underground in its burrow, so Sue has to monitor the temperature carefully, and keep the ice up to it.

It is no longer cute and cuddly, but it is still cute.