I have a Leatherman charge, got it about two years ago. I was out hiking along this little creek with my two dogs. I'm a good two hour hike from my car… and anything else of note. This creek runs through some coal seams and one can usually find some pretty good pieces of petrified wood and fossilized bone along the rocky bed. I was picking through some of the rocks while the dogs were rooting around, being dogs.
 

All of a sudden the dogs start barking and howling like crazy. I walked around a little bend in the creek and see that the dogs have found a porcupine. They had never seen a porcupine before so both decided to investigate this cat with bad hair. I got the dogs away from the porcupine quickly, but not quickly enough. Between the two of them they had around two hundred quills. One of my dogs has a mouth full of quills, the other had a bunch in the muzzle and took a good shot to the shoulder and couldn't walk on his front right leg. If not for my Leatherman I don't know what I would have done. It's a good two hours just to get back to the car. My one dog would not have been able to walk that far with the quills in his leg, and carrying a 60 pound dog full of quills for two hours over rough terrain would not have been easy…. and would have taken longer than two hours. I pulled out my Leatherman and spent a good forty five minutes to an hour pulling quills from the two dogs. I can't say that the Leatherman was the most efficient tool for pulling quills out of some rather agitated dogs, however given the situation, it was gold. I pulled all the quills I could find and get to. I got enough quills out of my one dogs shoulder so he could walk, albeit a bit labored.

 

We got back to the car without further incident. I called up my vet and they admitted us right away. One dog had 4 broken quills in her mouth; the vet had to knock her out to get them. They shaved my other dog's leg and shoulder; he was badly bruised and a little swollen, but they didn't find any other quills. Over the next week there were 5 more quills that were completely below the skin that worked their way out. The vet commented on how good of a job I did removing the quills. Both dogs came away with no lingering effects… except, I'm hoping, some caution towards approaching another porcupine.

 

I rarely left the house without my Leatherman before, and now the only time you will find me without it is on a plane. My Leatherman Charge absolutely saved the day!

 

Matt M.

Edmonton, AB, Canada