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An online campaign to help pay the vet bills of Saskatchewan dogs that survived a nasty encounter with a porcupine has surpassed its $10,000 fundraising goal in just one week.

Three dogs in the community of Craven got into a brawl with a porcupine last month, landing one in the vet’s office with life-threatening quills in her heart and lungs.

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Mike Gerrand set up a GoFundMe page for his friend Dennis Mazur, a youth worker. Mazur’s dogs Mahola, Nestah, and Soljah survived the fight, but Mahola bore the brunt of the porcupine attack and required extensive surgery to remove the quills. Gerrand said the vet bills reached $8,000, and continue to climb. Mazur has reportedly taken time off work to travel to the vet’s office in Saskatoon and stay close to Mahola, or as Gerrand describes it, “his baby girl.” As of Wednesday morning, donors had raised just over $11,000.

Porcupines can have as many as 30,000 sharp quills that cover back, sides, and tail. Porcupines can’t shoot the quills out, but they do have microscopic backwards-facing barbs at the tip, which can make them much harder to pull out once they come in contact with a predator.

“These dogs are the love of my dear friend Dennis’s life they travel everywhere with him and are loved by the special needs clients Dennis works with,” Gerrand wrote on the fundraising page.

Gerrand thanked the donors online, and reported Mazur was recently at the vet with Nestah removing quills from his spine and cheeks.

Mazur told the Toronto Star that the porcupine did not survive the encounter with the three dogs.