Spring is here again and the porcupines are out in force, plying their poison on woodland paths all over the state. Will our dog, Gus, survive the temptation?
Life with GusAfter living with Gus for a few years now, I can honestly say he is an irresistibly lovable dog. Which is good, because his charm has helped us to overlook and deal with his myriad issues.
My wife Bridget purposely picked Gus because she wanted to feel protected when I’m not home. From his Shepherd coloring and general body shape, he appears to be a watchdog. In a way, I suppose he is, although he only barks at deer and sometimes other dogs. You could walk into our house and Gus might not even get up, depending on his mood. I keep trying to convince myself he has such a highly developed sense of danger that in its absence, he doesn’t bother to hassle with barking. Or leaving his cozy bed.
Another problem is his hunting skill. Traditionally, dogs are considered good hunters and while Gus does love to pursue squirrels, he’s never even come close to catching one. He will follow them endlessly around the house, as they run from tree to tree chattering at him. You’re thinking, “Big deal, squirrels are tough to catch.” If only it were that simple.
Because some squirrels were living in our walls, Bridget set a Hav-a-Heart trap in the yard recently. When she nabbed one, Gus bolted out the door and straight towards the trap. He knocked it over, allowing the squirrel to escape and run away unharmed. You can write your own punch line, but I just think he loves to chase squirrels so much that he never wants it to end with an actual takedown.
All right, I’m not being totally fair. There are a few things that Gus seems to be able to catch … like skunks and porcupines. One time, he was staying with some friends in Elmore while we were away and cornered a skunk that was living under an outbuilding. Kellie told us on our return, “I saw it spray him and then he attacked, shook it and threw it into the air. Gus ended up killing the skunk. He smelled so bad he had to sleep in the garage, but we thanked him for clearing it out of there.”
Yes, he does have some useful talents, which we try to emphasize. We don’t want him to feel inadequate, especially when he is currently trying to kick a horrible addiction. This devastating disease stuck its tenacious barbs into him late last spring. We were on one of the first mountain bike rides of the season and Gus disappeared. When he came back a few moments later, he was scratching, frothy and full of quills.
This was not my first dog/porcupine incident, so I didn’t freak out. I just got him home and prepared to wrestle the quills out of his face and body. If there are less than a hundred, I can usually handle it. After opening his mouth, I immediately knew it was beyond my solo skills. Innumerable quills grew in a spiny thicket that covered his tongue, nose, mouth and gums, plus a few random ones in his paws and chest. Those are the ones to really watch out for, by the way. Their mouths will heal fast, but a chest quill can migrate inside their body, ala birdshot. Quills in their feet can interfere with mobility.
I made the call to take him to the vet, but it still took Dr. Karen and me over two hours to pull most of the quills out. Pieces of them kept emerging for the next sixty days, too. A fragment that went into the roof of his mouth came out the top of his nose, which swelled up like mini rhino horn. Despite all this pain, the seeds of obsession had been sown in his brain.
After this ordeal, I didn’t take Gus on a ride for a long while. But his sad eyes began to wear me down and I decided to take him. On the first ride since the incident, Gus again disappeared. Upon return, he seemed okay from a distance, but with closer inspection, he had five long quills in his upper lip. Not wanting to admit the awful truth, I rationalized that the decreased number of spikes meant he was weaning himself off porcupines.
But we still didn’t trust Gus and he was back on the short leash. About two months later, we were on a very quiet walking trail in Barre and felt comfortable letting him go for a short romp. A few minutes later, we heard a yelp. The time had finally come to accept that he was in the grips of a dangerous compulsion. Those five previous spines were just a tempting taste and only served to reinvigorate his porcupine cravings.
This time it was fifty or so quills, and nothing we couldn’t handle ourselves. After armoring up, we took turns holding him and pulling out the barbs. Bridget got a nice bruise from Gus as he drove the top of his head into her chin as she held him. There was blood everywhere and with his yelps of pain, we worried that the neighbors would think we were torturing him. But it was only tough love.
Spring is here again and the porcupines are out in force, plying their poison on woodland paths all over the state. We’re not sure how Gus will handle the temptation, but we’ve been working on some positive reinforcement techniques over the winter. He also joined a 24-step program (dogs have four legs, so a 12-step program only gets them halfway.)
Whatever happens, we won’t give up on him. Like I said, he’s irresistibly lovable.
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