Thought Question: What can people learn from helping an animal, person, or community member in need? Fans of The Road Runner Show may recall that the cartoon features Wile E. Coyote’s poor attempts to catch the speedy bird. In some episodes, he ends up covered with a pile of cactus spines. A real-life coyote pup suffered the same fate and likely wouldn’t have survived it if an Arizona homeowner hadn’t found him. The mishap likely didn’t come from a botched ACME product test. “It was probably a goofy little coyote who stumbled into the wrong cactus," Berkeley Martineau told KPNX-TV. He's a Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center veterinary tech. The homeowner called the center after finding the young coyote unable to move. It had hundreds of cholla cactus spines all over his body. Vets treated the little prairie wolf for several weeks. Cholla cactus spines can be nasty. The barbed thorns attach to the skin like fishhooks. That makes them tough to remove. After sedating the pup, Martineau and a colleague removed the spines one-by-one. The process took hours. “I was dreading having to get it all out because it's so painful,” Martineau told KPNX. “We've seen it in the face and paw, but this was head to tail. Everywhere. There were spines in the nose, mouth, tongue, tail, and back; it was everywhere." The coyote has recovered. And he made friends with other orphaned pups at the center. All of them will be released into the wild when they're ready. “He’s acting like a wild coyote should and is just as healthy as the other coyote pups,” Martineau told The Washington Post. “Once he’s big enough and strong enough, we’ll let him go.” Photo of a coyote pup from Unsplash courtesy of Aria W.
