I was inspired to write this short story because I remember that when I was in elementary school, for some odd reason, I used to get porcupines & skunks mixed up. 🦨🦔 - I wonder if Groundhog Day is as fictitious as the tooth fairy; or is it real?
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Theodore loves exotic animals. He always wanted to have them for pets. His favorite is the porcupine because of its quills. He purchased a new pet porcupine & named it, "Po Po". He tried to be funny & name it after the police, & not the porcupine, itself. That was his intent. He wanted the porcupine to be like a replacement for a watchdog. What was he thinking?
One day, on February 2, Theodore decided to let Po Po out in the backyard overnight. By 6:30 AM, he was awakened by the noise of roosters in his neighbors' backyard. Maybe the roosters were trying to alert everyone about how this skunk mysteriously got into Theodore's backyard. The skunk & the porcupine were fighting over a mysterious decomposed carcass, while the groundhog looked for his shadow. The groundhog saw his shadow, which meant 6 more weeks of Winter. The groundhog & a gopher were both being entertained by the fight, while the birds & airplanes distracted everyone. Too bad there were people flying over the house with a parachute & couldn't see what was going on.
Theodore's neighbors' little girl, Lily, thought that the skunk & the squirrel were fighting because they were angry about Winter being prolonged. Theodore joked that they were fighting because it's a full moon. It was like a double KO because the skunk sprayed the porcupine, while the porcupine's quills injured the skunk. They fought until they killed each other. This made Lily cry.
Lily was able to have a memory of the 2 animals because her parents made a Native American porky roach headdress out of the 2 animals. It wasn't a traditional one. It was unique & special because it also had skunk fur added. Lily had the decoration on her wall. She even went to college with it & put it in her dorm room. She also wore it to her wedding. By the time Lily became old & died, she even had it on her head, while she was lying in the casket. Her children put it as an ornament (part of her epitaph) on her tombstone.
THE END