Colorado trail cut surprisingly short. On this evening when we got to the campsite, it was warm and lovely, very nice after all the hail and just starting to dry things out again. We had been up all night the previous night because sultana had the runs, so looking forward to a good, long sleep. However, the princess had a run in with a porcupine, the result of which is pictured here. Spent about 8 hours total over this evening and the following morning trying to pry the things out of her front paw and face, mostly successful but all of us very traumatized, in addition to sultana having another night of the major runs. in the morning, we were lucky enough to be next to a very remote but travelable dirt road, and someone showed up to drop off a load of boy scouts, and offered to take us to town (actually, we didn't even ask--I think we looked harried enough that he just guessed). So we got dropped off at the vet's in Salida, got one of the last 2 needles out of sultana's face, and found out she had giardia. The next day, we had to go back again because she had one embedded in her mouth, so she had a "light sedative" which caused her to barf twice and pass out promptly in the parking lot, and then we were able to pull the last quill out (and got her teeth cleaned in the meantime!)Somewhat of an unglorious end, but we definitely got the drama.

Colorado trail cut surprisingly short. On this evening when we got to the campsite, it was warm and lovely, very nice after all the hail and just starting to dry things out again. We had been up all night the previous night because sultana had the runs, so looking forward to a good, long sleep. However, the princess had a run in with a porcupine, the result of which is pictured here. Spent about 8 hours total over this evening and the following morning trying to pry the things out of her front paw and face, mostly successful but all of us very traumatized, in addition to sultana having another night of the major runs. in the morning, we were lucky enough to be next to a very remote but travelable dirt road, and someone showed up to drop off a load of boy scouts, and offered to take us to town (actually, we didn't even ask--I think we looked harried enough that he just guessed). So we got dropped off at the vet's in Salida, got one of the last 2 needles out of sultana's face, and found out she had giardia. The next day, we had to go back again because she had one embedded in her mouth, so she had a "light sedative" which caused her to barf twice and pass out promptly in the parking lot, and then we were able to pull the last quill out (and got her teeth cleaned in the meantime!)Somewhat of an unglorious end, but we definitely got the drama.