Unusual Sightings

Last night Jonathan came home from his first night of English classes around 11pm.  Which, by the way went extremely well.  Two students expressed to him today their extreme delight in the fun and interactive lesson last night.  Jonathan is using the TPR (Total Physical Response) method this year, so the structure and method is new to him as well.  However, it sounds like a lot of fun and that the students might actually learn and absorb more this year using this method.  I will have to write more on English at another time.

So back to my story...when Jonathan arrived home he walked across our lawn and noticed something moving underfoot.  He was out there for a while checking the critter out before coming in to get me.  He said, "You gotta come out here.  There is an animal in the yard, but I don't know what it is.  I think maybe it is a porcupine."  Since I am the animal expert of the family, I figured this would be an easy identification.  However, I too had never seen such a critter in person and in the dark it looked pretty spiny and prickly to me.  My best guess for someone who just woke up off the couch was that it might be a baby porcupine.  We took a picture just so people wouldn't think were crazy to find this unusual animal in our yard and away from any kind of forest.  It was the size of a guinea pig more or less and really, really cute, but no way was I going to touch it with those prickly looking things on it.

Wanting to make sure that my animal identification was correct before making a blunder to all who might read this, I searched the internet for a picture of a baby porcupine.  Okay, so what we saw was definitely NOT that!  My second guess was a hedgehog.  Although my only association was to Sonic the Hedgehog, and he is blue!  I was delighted to see from pictures on the internet that it most definitely was a hedgehog in our yard.  And then, after reading a few sights about hedgehogs, I just about kicked myself for not knowing that because apparently they make really good pets.  The kids would have loved to have this guy around!

So now the kids and I are praying he will come back to our yard so we can keep him for a pet.  Apparently, they are considered an exotic pet to have.  Maybe he was a lost pet in the neighborhood or maybe wild, I guess I would have to research some more whether or not they are a common in this area.