That time Piper met a Porcupine…

Flashback to last Saturday morning. Matt and I are sitting next to an older man in the Emergency Vet’s waiting room watching a nature show on TV. A porcupine appears onscreen and the man says “Have you ever seen a dog that came face to face with a porcupine?? OUCH!” Oh yes, I tell him. In fact, that’s exactly why we’re here!!!

Piper, or Porcupipe, as she may be called from now on, BIT A PORCUPINE on Friday afternoon. Piper is fine and no, I don’t think that she learned not to mess with porcupines in the future!! We were on a hike as part of our annual sojourn to the Hunting Camp, aka Globe Run Rod and Gun Club, a private wilderness retreat located in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. As is always the case at Camp, all dogs run free and daily activities include swimming in the lake, hiking, and logging some quality time in the rocking chairs on the front porch. But this year was a liiiittle different, thanks to Piper’s prickly new friend.

After a morning at the lake, Friday afternoon found six of us on a hike, venturing into the state forest lands that border the Hunting Camp. We had just turned onto the abandoned and overgrown remnants of McCool Road when I heard Matt yelling “Piper, NO!! Piper, OFF!!!!” Seconds later, Piper emerged (obediently!) from the forest and heeled next to Matt on the trail and Matt hurriedly explained that he’d seen Piper harassing what looked like a porcupine several feet off the trail. At first we didn’t think Piper had come in contact with the spiky beast, especially since we hadn’t heard any reaction from her, but soon enough we realized that her little face resembled a pin cushion, with tiny quills poking out of her lips, gums, tongue, and mouth. Poor Piper!!

Matt quickly set about extracting the quills with his fingers. Piper, still preoccupied with the porky 20 feet off the trail, was seemingly oblivious and put up little fight while Matt performed his grisly task. After several minutes of plucking Miss Piper was almost good as new, with just a few quills remaining in her mouth. We hiked the 2 miles back to camp and tried to get cell service to call the vet. (Oh yeah, did I mention that we have no cell service and no internet access at the Hunting Camp?!)

After a brief, staticky phone call with the vet we determined that Piper didn’t require immediate medical attention since she was very comfortable (actually rather proud of herself, if you ask me) and eating normally. We stuck around at Camp long enough to enjoy a big dinner with our family, then drove home late Friday night so we could get Piper checked out the next morning.

Unfortunately, the ER vet was unable to remove the two broken quills from Piper’s mouth, but she explained that they should work themselves out over time. A few hours and $227 later we headed home with a woozy pup and a two week supply of antibiotics. Piper is now completely back to her wild, normal self and shouldn’t have any long term effects from her porcupine incident. Thank goodness!

Our trip to the Hunting Camp may have been cut short this year, but I still took a ton of photos in the single day we were there. Here are a few of my favorites. Enjoy!