October 2009
A Mouth Full of Painful Quills
Recently, during a horseback trip through upper Wisconsin’s Chequamegon National Forest, our Siberian Husky, "Echo," found herself on the losing end of a confrontation with a porcupine. Echo usually comes along with us as does our Leatherman multi-tool when we take our horses out into the backcountry. Echo likes to lead the way, being of alpha persuasion; just because our horses have 1350 pounds on her, why should they be "top dog."
During our recent trip, miles from any assistance, while out on the trails enjoying the many fall colors, Echo disappeared, suddenly. We figured she was on the scent of a critter. Not wanting to get too far away from her, we stopped and called to her and called to her and called to her. Finally, we could see Echo heading back toward us through the underbrush, but noticed her periodically pausing to paw at her face. When she got near enough, we could see she had many, many porcupine quills in her muzzle, her mouth and tongue! She was in obvious pain.
I wondered, for only a moment, about what we would do to help her deep in the national forest. Clearly, she was not going to get far in this condition and we were a long way from a vet. Then, I remembered my multi-tool. Though, I wasn't crazy about increasing Echo’s discomfort, I knew what I had to do and I knew I had the tool to do it.
One by one, while my wife held our hapless, helpless, squirming, whimpering Echo, I plucked very resistant, well-embedded quills from her mouth and face. It took about 30 minutes, but using my multi-tool, I was able to remove each quill. Once all were removed Echo perked up and headed on down the trail, tail waggling, ready for more exploring. I bet that’s the last porcupine learned to hate and the first Leatherman she learned to love.
Feeling like I saved the day (and the trip) thanks to my multi-tool, I proudly tucked away my Leatherman to await its next heroic act.
If Echo could speak, she I'm sure she would say “Thank you” for the Leatherman and “What purpose does a porcupine serve?”
Michael R.
Minneapolis, MN
OK, you voyeur, you. Enough of reading other people's stories. It's time you told your own tale of gripping heroism or even just neat DIY'ism. We know there's a Shakespeare in you somewhere. Don't make us use the Steens to find it.