Re: [pct-l] Cholla cactus and dogs

[Owen <jrowen@ibm.net>]

Jeff Jones wrote:
> 
> I live in the desert (I can see the Desert Divide portion of the PCT
> from my office window) and hike alot with my dogs.  I rarely contact
> cholla cactus myself EXCEPT when removing them from my dogs.  Besides
> the comb trick, I carry a Leatherman tool when the dogs are around.
> Nothing like needlenose pliers for removing the barbed spines that stay
> in after the main ball is removed.  Amazingly enough, the dogs don't
> seem bothered after the spines are removed.  There are so many chollas
> in the Mission Creek area that I stopped taking my dogs in there.
>                 Jeff Jones
>
I was always amazed at how patient our dogs were at letting us get the
cactus out.  Even when they got old, and were much more sensitive to
touch, they would sit patiently as we pulled thorns out of their fur.
One dog had a bad habit of sitting on things! The other would try to
remove the cactus herself - Have you ever tried to remove spines from a
dog's tongue? Are foxtails also a problem on the PCT?  In Arizona in
May, if you were walking along the arroyos there was a kind of grass
with a pretty but nasty head that would burrow through fur and impale
the poor dogs. If not removed, they would fester.  Since so many PCT
hikers seem to wear gaiters, I've wondered if  it was because of the
foxtails.

re cholla - in the rising or the setting sun, teddy bear cholla seems to
wear a golden halo - quite beautiful.
Ginny
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