There's a first time...

...for everything. It was bound to happen, it was only a matter of time. Kylee met a porcupine. Fortunately, it seems her indoctrination was pretty mild -- well, milder than it could have been. You see, the quills were teeny baby size. Only half an inch or so. And there were few, maybe a dozen or so.

I Google-d porcupines and learned that they bear young in the Spring and that the tykes are born with quills which harden within hours of their birth. I'm not certain they were baby quills, but what else could they be? Not only are they short, they are thin.

I was able to remove half a dozen quills; however, once she saw this thing in my hand (a tweezer) and put it together with the pain that immediately followed, she was onto me and wouldn't let me take any more out. Even after 2 sleeping tablets (the vet said they wouldn't do a thing for a Lab, but couldn't give me suggestions for what would!). So, it was off to the vet for $100 worth of general anesthesia. So I decided to get my money's worth and had them trim her nails while she was out.

What gets me down sometimes is that I'm the only one here. There is nobody here to help me--nobody to hold Kylee still while I pull out quills and nobody to hold it while I climb a 20' ladder to replace a bulb in the fixture up the Ponderosa pine down at the gate. I'm afraid of heights, and afraid of the dark. Sigh.