Simon & the Porcupine — A true story —

Simon was a small maybe runt of the family German Sheppard dog!

And the porcupine well it was exactly that — a porcupine!

It would be our first year living together as a newly formed family. By that I mean. My mother and us three kids and her then-boyfriend and his two kids! The year would be 1973, and the very start was in August of that year, we became a family.

As time wore on animals were added to the roster. I noticed a higher number of wild animals that were relocating.

I can recall Simon barking continually the odd few nights! The fall of that first year started a journey of farm life, a time for ski-do riding, horseback riding, raising beef for our freezer, and coming face-to-face with wilderness life.

So, on this one fall night of 1973, Simon was barking obsessively. In the morning the German lady next door woke us up and told us that our dog had frozen icicles on his chin. A look closer the icicles proved to be porcupine quills. The quills were all along Simon’s bottom jawbone, and down the front of his front legs and paws.

Simon spent the next two weeks in quarantine and had the quills removed. Fear of rabies! The vet said Simon would attack an animal again like a porcupine out of instinct! And that a family dog will always protect its owner.

I learned a great deal from farming and living in Southern Ontario.

Thank you for reading this story!

Rene Riel 2024