Porky Opener

Opening week end a few years back, too warm and everything all thick and green, but you just have to get out with the dogs. We were in one of our favorite covers on our very first push and the dogs were a little ways out of sight but we could hear the bells pretty well. Then we heard the barking. When we arrived on the scene Frieda and Belle, our pointers, were tag teaming a porcupine. Frieda had to be pulled off it. They were covered in quills. We walked them back to the truck. I had read that snipping off the tip of the quill made it easier to pull out because it released the air in the quill. We got out the clippers and our leathermans and went to work. After removing enough quills from their muzzles so they could drink water the puppies had had enough and were impossible to hold.
We needed a vet. We stopped at our favorite watering hole, the Nimrod, and started going through the phone book calling all the local veterinarians. Every call was greeted with a taped message instructing us to go to Green Bay. Rick at Peshtigo Veterinarian Service was in. So we headed back home to Peshtigo with our pitiful pointers. He told us not to clip the quills if it ever happened again. It gives him less to grab onto. He sedated them and pulled out the quills. Gave them some antibiotics and we were on our way. We now had two unconscious pointers in the back of the truck.

We thought this was hilarious and laid them out on my front lawn. While we drank a few beers we demonstrated how well behaved our dogs were to passersby. ‘Watch this, Stay!’ ‘Play Dead’ we thought it was pretty funny. Pretty soon my Father came walking over. My parents only live a few houses away. My mother had seen us drinking beer in the front yard with the dogs laid out and sent him over to find out what was happening. She told him it looked like the dogs had died and those two goofballs are having a wake in the front yard. Quite the opening day.