Knowing that someday, her phobia might affect her work, she was seriously thinking about quitting. As the woman was telling her story, she was changing the bandages on an injured porcupine. The creature had been hit by a car. They just want to go about their business in peace. To assure this, they are armed with 35 - 40,000 barbed, needle sharp quills.
Porcupines take their privacy very seriously.
Contrary to popular myth, porcupines don't shoot their quills, which are actually modified hairs. The quills, are loosely attached to the skin. Very carefully . The male, however, usually ends up with a face full of quills that he has to pluck out one by one. Even in the world of the gentle porcupine, the price of love is high.