Met the vet this morning

We got up this morning, expecting to have a nice relaxing start to the day before leaving to go to a felting workshop and go fishing with a friend. Things changed as soon as we saw Smiley running around the outside of the house! The dogs had managed to squeeze through a tiny gap in the fence overnight, after we had left them unchained, thinking that it was the right time to start giving them more freedom. Another lesson learned the hard way. Luckily, Smiley came back into the pen right away, but there was no sign of Cookie.



So, just like last time, we harnessed up the good dog, and went out for a walk around Robinson to find the escaped dog. Not halfway up the driveway, Cookie came barrelling towards us. Hooray! But our hearts sank when we saw that she was absolutely covered in porcupine quills. Colin managed to get most of the quills out of her coat, but she couldn't stand us pulling out the ones that were stuck inside her mouth. We called the emergency line of Deb's vet, and luckily were able to meet a really nice vet at the clinic in town. Cookie had to be sedated (Took two full needles! Way to go, tough Cookie!), which was sad to watch at the time, but in hindsight was a bit hilarious because she sort of sank to the ground with her tongue hanging out. The vet took out the dozen or so quills out that were left, and then gave her an anti-sedation shot that woke her up in a few minutes. It took a little while longer for her tongue to stay in her mouth :)

We brought her back home and kept a close eye on her, and she slowly came back to normal. We were busy with repairing the mesh tent that was out on the porch- one of the walls was mutilated by a curious dog, and we also reinforced the wall of the pen that they squeezed through. Oh, and we also force-bathed Cookie to get rid of the terrible stench of week-old dead porcupine goo.

Here are some photos from this long day:

It looked like she had a terrible hangover all day

Good thing our moms taught us to sew!

The poor tent looks like Frankenstein now, but it still keeps the bugs away

Happy times again

Backyard delphiniums

Backyard (and everywhere else) fireweed

I'm the good one now!

Smiley is getting lots more cuddly

She knew we had tacos for dinner

Awww...

We don't LOOK like bad parents, do we?

Still lots more to learn

Family photos are impossible