On a branch in a peaceful forest sat Pudge, a little porcupine sadly watching a couple of pretty butterflies. Pudge was very lonely because he wasn't soft and cuddly like a bunny rabbit or even a squirrel. Most of the other animals avoided Pudge because of the sharp quills he had instead of fur.
Even though Pudge would get up every morning and comb his 
quills, they still remained sharp and prickly. This made it very difficult to make friends. More than anything Pudge could wish for, most of all he wanted a friend. He had tried going to the petting zoo to meet children. That didn't work at all. The children stayed far away.
Pudge begged and pleaded with the 
children but they wouldn't come close enough to say hi. They thought he was very cute but again his quills made them stay at a safe distance. The kids wanted to be friendly but were simply afraid to get stuck by his quills. So Pudge started to head back to the woods and home.
On his way out of the park he spotted a 
cooler someone had left behind. When he got it open, he found lots of good food and had himself a picnic right there in the park. Closer to home he spotted a little skunk. She walked right up to Pudge and said "Hi my name is Magnolia, what's yours? " Pudge was so surprised, she didn't
seem the least bit afraid of him. Pudge introduced himself and did 
somersaults showing off a little bit. He asked Magnolia why she wasn't afraid of him and she told him her sad story. Magnolia told Pudge about the problem she had with sometimes having a smell
that people and other animals didn't like to be around. Even she had to 
admit it was hard for her to be around the odor sometimes. It usually just happened when someone was chasing her, like a man and even a car that tried to catch her one day. She always tried to run away first but if that didn't work she had this built in smell to defend herself.
Magnolia could smell up a person or even a car for a 
long time to come. Pudge said he could also scare others pretty badly. His quills were very sharp and painful. He picked up some quills he had just shed to show Magnolia. She had to agree,
they were very sharp! Pudge didn't really 
understand why people were so afraid of him and still was very sad. Magnolia left him a present to cheer him up. He kept touching it not sure what to do with it. Pudge had never received a present before. Finally he picked it up and shook it. When he opened it
he was so happy. Magnolia had left a large present 
full of one of his favorite things, cherries! Pudge had never been so pleased. He was going to have to get something special for Magnolia too. He thought about what kind of present would make her happy. He finally
decided a beautiful red rose would be perfect. He popped 
cherries in his mouth as Magnolia smelled her lovely flower. You see, this was the first gift Magnolia had ever received also. She just knew Pudge was going to be the best friend she had ever had!
Magnolia remembered being in school and having a
really hard time making friends because of her odor. She would go out to the playground and get on the swing set but before you knew it she would be the only one left alone on the swings.
Magnolia wanted friends as badly as Pudge. 
Magnolia and Pudge both knew why she wasn't liked a lot. It wasn't because she wasn't nice, just that her odor was hard to be around. Now Pudge on the other hand, really didn't understand why he couldn't make friends. Magnolia decided to show him why. She took him to see something that would
show him why, a big cacti with sharp thorns. Pudge reached 
out to touch it and right away he knew why people were so afraid to be near him. It hurt to get pricked by those thorns. He climbed his favorite tree and thought about all the times he had teased Mr.
Davis by getting under his chair and pricking his bottom. Just like 
Magnolia had given a few people a spray just because she was mad at them. They both decided that wasn't the right thing to do. Each promised the other they would never do that again unless it was to protect themselves. Each would help the other to keep their promise.
Pudge headed for home thinking all along the way, about 
how to solve his problem of scaring people. Suddenly there was a mean looking fox staring him right in the face. Pudge thought I'm going to try a different way to scare the fox away, instead of sticking him with my quills. He decided to puff himself up and give this fox a really mean look. With a
loud GRRRR...to go with the look, that's all it took. Off went that fox,
never to be seen again! He was out of there! Pudge got on his log roll to cross the river to his home. Pudge remembered a day when he had found a balloon that took him up in the air and
right over the river. That was really fun! Finally he was home. 
He stopped to play with a cute butterfly with beautiful colors. They became friends, that made two new friends he had. Pudge asked the little butterfly to tell Magnolia if he saw her, that he would like for her to come and see him.
He was trying to think of a nice gift to give
Magnolia. Pudge wanted her to feel as good about herself and be as happy as he was. Suddenly he knew just what he wanted to get her, so off he went to the store. The butterfly found Magnolia and told her that Pudge wanted to see her again. Magnolia was happy to hear her friend was looking for her and got herself all cleaned up with perfume to smell nice.
When Pudge got there, he had a special present for her, a sweet 
red pillow for Magnolia to lay her head on every night when she went to sleep. Pudge wanted her to always have nice dreams and remember that no matter what happened in this world, she would always have him as a special friend!
A BEST FRIEND IS SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO AND TREASURE FOREVER!
