An off-duty officer who came to the rescue during a porcupine situation is thanked for Feel Good Friday

EastIdahoNews.com and Ashley in Idaho Falls and Pocatello are partnering to honor people in our community for Feel Good Friday. Every week, we surprise someone deserving of special recognition.

We recently received an email about an off-duty Idaho Falls Police officer who helped with a prickly situation. It said:

Thursday was full of surprises! After several hours learning my own efforts failed to solve the problem and no government agencies would help, Malin Reynolds, an off-duty Idaho Falls Police Officer, came to the rescue.

I opened the garage door Thursday morning and discovered a mess. The trail led to a large porcupine hunkered down in a back corner of our garage behind power tools. Poor thing had spent a very hot night trying to find a way out. The contents of our garage looked like they had been knocked off shelves by an earthquake. The smell and droppings were clearly not from an earthquake. My husband had a commitment that day but I figured I could handle it.

First I went to the internet and learned porcupines love apples and salt. After waiting a couple of hours, the trail of salted apple chunks had not enticed the animal to leave.

Then I called the government agencies I thought might rescue the porcupine but when those options failed, I shared my dilemma with my daughter-in-law. She went to Facebook seeking help.

Malin Reynolds saw her post and immediately offered to help. When I spoke with Malin, he said he, his son and a friend were available anytime. They arrived in a pick up truck and promptly coaxed the porcupine into a large trash container, closed the lid and drove it to a new location. It took much longer for the porcupine to be relocated than to catch it. Malin thoughtfully drove it to a county location away from houses. To top it off, Malin did not want any compensation.

Malin told me he and his son had rescued a porcupine from a home in Stonebrook last week. My daughter-in-law told me he had also removed a porcupine from a local elementary school some time ago.

The news is full of police officers being found fault with. Please consider some positive recognition for one of our own off-duty police officers, Malin Reynolds who, cheerfully and voluntarily, has become a porcupine rescuer.

We decided to surprise Malin and thank him for coming to the rescue. Watch the video in the player above!