The Curse of Mt. A

The curse continues for us at Mt. A. Earlier this summer, while mountain biking there, Nate threw out his back and was laid up for over a week. It was not one of those pleasant adventures. And last night, we got another not-so-pleasant adventures... But let me step back...

On Saturday, while playing in the field across the street from our house, I saw Scout take off over the hill towards the chicken pen. I grabbed Oakley, told the boys to hold on tight, grabbed the bike and took off after Scout. When I got to the chicken pen, I saw that Scout has somehow evaded the electric fence around the chickens and was in the pen with the chickens. I turned off the electric fence, jumped in the pen, and grabbed Scout only to see a dead chicken near Scout. I picked him up and got him out of the pen and turned the fence on. I dragged him back to our house and put him in his kennel where he spent most of his day. I had to go tell the farmers that Scout had killed a chicken and I felt TERRIBLE!! I promised that we would do whatever we could to keep him from killing another and offered to pay them!!

So... karma has a way of creeping it's head back in and sure enough, Scout got a karma-slap to his mug!!! Last night, we went to Mt. A to ride around. We were doing great. Flying through the trails, laughing, having a great time. Nate saw Scout turn and buzz away from the trail. Then Nate heard Scout yelp. I was out in front so when I heard Nate yell for Scout, I stopped. Eventually, Nate and Scout came up the trail and Nate was like, 'oh $hit'. I looked at Scout and he had a beard of quills from a porcupine. The dumb dog went mouth first for a porcupine and got it in return. We spent a few minutes trying to pull out as many as we could, but as it was getting dark, decided it was not the time or place to keep working on it. We headed back to the car. Scout would fly up in front of us, scrape at his face until we caught up, and then would fly in front again. Part of it was very comical and part of it just sucked. We finally got back to the car, loaded up the dogs and the bikes and headed home. On the way home, I called an emergency vet and they said we could try pulling them out ourselves, but it might require Scout to be put out so if we can't get it done, to bring him and they'd take care of it. We got home, pulled out the pliers and tried pulling them out. Nate got one out between Scout's toes. Then he tried to take another one out around Scout's lips and Scout almost bit him. We decided it was officially time to take him to a vet. One of my friends from swimming in New England is a vet... He's a great friend to have!! I called him and asked him if he would be able to take care of Scout. He said, yes and meet him at the clinic. So, off we went.

Scout is one tough little $hit!!!! My friend said, "Here is a horse tranq. It'll make him sleep. This is all we should need". So he gives Scout the horse tranq. Scout starts to slow down and eventually lays down. The vet started pulling the quills out of his neck and around his head. He then goes to pull one out of Scout's lip and Scout springs back to life and nearly bit his hand. So my friend goes back into his medicine room and pulls out something a bit stronger. This drug kinda paralyzes Scout. At least that's what it seemed like to me. Scouts eyes were huge and bugging out but he couldn't do anything. So the vet pulls out the quills around his lips and his nose. He then starts to work on the quills that are in his mouth and Scout bugs out again. The vet gives him another shot, and as the vet is working on the quills in Scout's mouth, Scout's tongue is going nuts and Scout is hissing and trying with all his might to pull out of the way. Granted Scout was on something and was paralyzed and couldn't really move, but he was trying!! So, next step, Scout is put out. The vet gassed Scout and still, Scout put up a fight! The vet would think he was out, and would try to put the breathing tube in. Scout would start whining and hissing... more gas for Scout... try again... more gas for Scout... I had to walk away from all this because I couldn't stand it. Scout's whining was sooo sad. Eventually, they were able to get a breathing tube in and he was knocked out completely. The vet was then able to clean out the remaining quills from his mouth. I wish I would've gotten a good picture of where some of these were, but I'll do my best to describe it... One was through his gum by his front teeth on the roof of his mouth. It started at his teeth and came out near his lip. Another was under his tongue and was completely in the base of his mouth. At one point, I heard Nate say, "Scalpel". Yes, Nate was very happy to help!! It took about an hour and a half but all of the quills were successfully removed.

Once it was done, we had to wait until the anesthesia wore off. As he woke up, he peed on himself twice, he threw up, he walked around like a drunken sailor. He was a mess... and all we said to him was, "Karma's a bi-atch, Scout. Karma's a bi-atch!".