Spiny Norman

I discovered Monty Python's Flying Circus as a teenager. The program was broadcast weekly on the local station "WOSU" (OSU being Ohio State University). I adored the humor, even when I didn't totally "get it". One of my favorite sketches involved a story about the "Piranah Brothers" - gangsters who terrorized their neighborhood. Doug and Dinsdale Pirhana used "violence and sarcasm" as their main weapons - and wreaked general havoc.

Dinsdale, as bad as he was, had an Achilles' heal - he was terrified of an imaginary hedgehog named "Spiny Norman", who apparently grew to enormous proportions whenever Dindsdale was depressed.

OK.

I'm not going to try and explain about the Pirhana Brothers or Dinsdale any more... this post will get too long and you'll either get bored or confused or both (after all... who can really explain a Monty Python sketch in writing?).

Why am I talking about it at all? Just to explain where I got the name "Spiny Norman".

We have an echidna on our property. An echidna is not a hedgehog - but they do have spines. There's the connection: the spines.

Night before last, our neighbor rang to say her cat (recently acquired) had bolted out the door and, she was sure, was wandering our property. It was getting dark, so Stephen went out with her to have a look around and see if we could find Miss "Willow". They didn't find the cat, but did come across the echidna - and here's a photo:

 Probably a foot from end-to-end, this little guy is NOT happy. We saw one before, a couple of years ago, and that little fellow was pretty bold - completely ignoring the two excited humans snapping photos. But this one has his head pulled in and spines out.

I wouldn't call that "the welcome mat" at all - more a "Get Lost!" gesture.

So Stephen snapped these two photos and came away, leaving "Spiny" unmolested.

We sincerely hope that Miss Willow hasn't been overly curious and has, like Stephen, given Spiny a wide berth.

Miss Willow is still "at large", but we expect to corral her soon.