Recreating?

Our recreation time in Hope always includes hiking on the various trails. If we are dog-sitting Cooper, we bring him along and try to let him off the leash for a while. Big mistake! During our last trip up the Bear Creek Trail, Cooper discovered the delicacy that is porcupine (stekelvarken). Michiel ran him back home with half a face full of quills and we later had to drive him to the Pet Emergency clinic in Anchorage (1.5 hours away).

The vet put him under (narcose) and removed the quills while we went out for a pizza. He also gave him enough morphine to make him basically comatose for the ride home, the transport from car to house and into the following day.

Over the next two days, we discovered that more of the quills had worked their way through his fur/skin/muscles and Michiel held him down while I yanked them out with needle-nose pliers. Quills are evil things - barbed on one end and about 2 inches long.

All is well now and Cooper is back to chasing black bears up trees.