Dog things

Saturday 17th Of November.

Last week was not the best of weeks. We appear to have a resident porcupine in the woods near to my house and on three consecutive days Raiza, Kasidi and Lela were"spiked". Ranger managed to get just one in the middle of his lip. Quite how he managed that I can only imagine but It really was very distressing for the dogs having them removed. Everyone has their own idea as to how they should be removed but they way I remove them is to bandage the dogs eyes and top part of the muzzle and remove the big ones with a pair of pliers. The small ones I leave until the next day where I find they are much easier to remove. Obviously if the quills were in the neck region I would take the dog to the vets to have them removed under anesthetic. We have been lucky in that there have not been too many unlike last year when Brewster resembled Santa Claus as he had loads on both sides of his face.

We did not go far this morning on our walk as I could hear gun shots and Lela does not like the sound of guns. We stayed around the property and in our own paddock and the dogs went crazy for the cow manure. Very distasteful, but all dogs seem to view It as a delicacy so I try not to get too upset about It. I think the end of the deer hunting is December 7th and It can't come soon enough for me.

I had to take Olivia to school early this morning and on the main road we saw a hunter cruising on his 4 wheeler with his gun over his shoulder looking for deer. I was so angry to see this, I thought hunting required skill, looking for tracks and waiting patiently in the woods, being at one with nature. Guys like him give the sport a bad name and sadly there seems to be many like him. I really find It very distressing but It is part of living in upstate New York.