09/21/2025
A story to tell. So I stopped by my office Saturday morning to do some financial stuff. When I arrived, things were out of place. A plant stand was knocked over, a couple of books had been knocked on the floor, some CDs had been knocked off our radio stand. I immediately checked to make sure all the doors had been locked. (They had). I checked the cash box and everything was in order. It just looked like my office had been given a good shake. I even checked if there was any seismic activity in the area. After an hour of busy work, I chalked it up to just an odd occurrence and left. When I got home, my wife said it sounds like you have a cat in your office. There had been some stray cats around earlier in the summer, so I thought it could be possible, but I had been there for an hour in the morning and didn't hear anything moving anywhere.
I had to return later in the day to grab some supplies for a project at home. But this time, nothing was out of place but I could tell by the smell that there was something in my office that shouldn't be there. After a quick inspection I found some animal droppings in the back room, so something had been there. The question was "What?". Rat? Racoon? Something?
I grabbed a stick and started beating around the place just trying to startle whatever it was. But nothing. I was just getting ready to give-up, when out of the corner of my eye, I see a large animal seated on the back platform of my industrial cutter. I still couldn't see what it was because it was blocked by the cutting mechanism. So I got up on a chair so I could see, and lo and behold, I had a PORCUPINE taking up residence in my office.
(OK, we'll pause here for a second to answer the question everyone asks, "How'd it get in?" Well, as anyone that has been to my office knows, I bring my dog to the office everyday, when the weather is nice, I leave the backdoor open so Dez can wander in and out as he wishes. It is a closed in grass area back there. As near as I can tell, the porcupine must have sauntered in unnoticed on Friday afternoon before I had locked up for the day. So he had a night's vacation in my office before being found out on Saturday. )
Anyway, I was now faced with how to get a porcupine off my cutter and out of the office. With a great deal of effort using a mop and a broom (porcupine's are pretty stubborn when they don't want to move) success! I got him off the cutter, and moving towards the open back door, but I celebrated too soon. Instead of continuing straight to the outdoors and freedom, he instead took a hard right into the bathrooms and climbed up on my toilet.
Now the bathroom area is an enclosed area. I was pretty comfortable trying to maneuver him in my open office, but in an enclosed space, I was feeling a little out of my depth.
So I punted, a quick call brought a gentleman from the Game Commission. He was able to quickly and humanely remove Pete (yes, I named him) and was going to release him in the State Game Land. I wish I had gotten the name of the game officer, because he really did a wonderful job, but he did extend a "Thank You" to me because he stated he had never done a Porcupine from a Business removal before.
Can't say I had porcupine on my BINGO card for Saturday afternoon either, but I guess we have gained a new mascot here at Laurel Quick Print.
