I had a rip-roaring Monday morning. I was walking the dogs in the woods early this morning as I do every morning. They are off-leash so they can run around and get worn out for the day. We walk a trail that ends up at an old abandoned gravel pit that’s in a big field. I walk around the pit 3 or 4 times (it’s about 1/4 mile around) then head back to the car (about a mile away). As I’m walking my laps around the pit, the dogs are either following me, chasing each other around (within sight) or splashing around in the pond at the bottom of the pit.
I looked at the time and figured it was early enough that I could do one more lap before heading back. Bad decision. The dogs were just a few steps ahead of me. We were about 3/4 of the way around when I saw the dogs’ ears perk up and they bolted. I knew whatever it was they saw wasn’t going to be good. There was a big fat porcupine waddling along the path. Romeo the boxer, who is the smartest dog when it comes to tricks, is as dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to skunks and porcupines. He has been skunked approximately 20 times and stuck by porcupines 3 times. I shouted/yelled/screamed with all I had but he just kept going after it. Luca, the boxer/mastiff mix who is kind of dumb when it comes to tricks at least has street smarts. It took only once being sprayed by a skunk and he was done with them. He came back to me.
I was finally able to grab Romeo and leash him. The last two times he got the quills in his muzzle. This time his right paw looked like a bottle brush! So now I had to get him back to the car which was a mile away. I never thought we’d get there. He was in pain and limping. He stopped every 10 seconds to lick his paw and try to bite the quills out. He weighs 90 lbs so I couldn’t carry him out. It was awful.
Luckily the vet squeezed us in as soon as he opened. They had to put Romeo under to get the quills out. I picked him up 1-1/2 hours later. The vet said the quills were in really deep and some had broken off (I’m sure from Romeo biting them). He said there are a couple he couldn’t get to so I’ll have to watch and make sure they don’t cause an infection.
Oh and one week ago today, Romeo was sprayed by a skunk. He still has a slight aroma to him.
UGH!