Gracie
She had the thickest porcupine quills ever right near her eye. How these things have gotten so close, but missed their eyes after all these years of porcupine incidents is nothing short of amazing!
Lucy, after the first attempt at de-quilling. She is in pain, bloody, but still happy! (or oblivious)
Hi there! Hey, one question... any idea why my face and mouth kind of hurts??
So, off we went, the six of us in the truck headed to town. I can only imagine what the oncoming vehicles thought as they saw the dogs quill-heads sticking out the windows.
George, on the other hand is NOT a happy camper. She got the worst of it - couldn't close her mouth or swallow, she was drooling everywhere. Some would say "poor thing...", I say "suck it up!" If only they would learn from their mistakes, but nooooooo.
Jack & Harris
Quite possibly the HAPPIEST dogs ever with quills in their faces and mouths. Although it's a close one with Lucy. They have an excuse to be so happy, they *think* they're going on a road trip. After attempting to pull quills on Lucy (got most of them by myself) and Gracie, I quickly realized I needed to rally the troops! You know you have GREAT friends when you can descend on them unannounced with a truck full of quill-infested dogs and get help! (and beer!)
Not only that, they (Steph, Heather and Dave) came to rescue an escapee while I was away on vacation. The cavalry arrived within an hour after my request from 8000km away! They rounded up a skittish Ivy in record time!! What would we do without awesome friends like that?!?! HUGE thanks to you guys! You can collect your Newfoundland Screech anytime... :)
Why you need really good, springy small pliers for pulling quills. The big ol' fat pliers give you blisters! Ooh, my dogs never better say I don't suffer for them.
Everyone is all de-quilled now and the dogs are on LOCKDOWN! That means no frolicking in the woods... until snow hits the ground! Or until I fortify the property with concrete walls.
Meanwhile, just when you think things have settled down and your problems are over:
Ripper decided it would be fun to chew on a package of bullets! This is quite possibly the stupidest item he has ever chewed on.
But, then I guess that's what I get for leaving my bullets on the porch!!!
6 comments:
Fortunately, I never had to de-quill a dog, though I did help pluck quills for a native american working on some quill work. Let's just say I should have read Tom Sawyer and the white-washing the fence story a little more carefully before being convinced it was an honor to help pluck quills.
Oh, and I caught Kodiak once with a box of shotgun shells. He did not want the shells, but thought the box was quite tasty.
I remember the last quill pics you posted. It looks so painful!
Amazing how they can look so happy with quills in their faces!
ooo...ouch...owwie...yowch...ack...
You know, non-mushers think most of the time we spend with the dogs is zipping along and standing on runners with the sun shining.
Weird, huh?
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