Spyderco Forums

Olivias collar, or rather the name tag got stuck between the floorboards on the porch and she tossed and turned in panic, making it worse. One swift but very careful cut and she was saved. Thank God (and Spyderco)

A dog in true panic mode can be a scary, and dangerous thing! Glad it worked out!

benben wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 7:09 am

A dog in true panic mode can be a scary, and dangerous thing! Glad it worked out!

So am I, and Olivia

glad she's okay!

Good save.


The next collar might be better with the tag riveted to it instead of dangling.

Evil D wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 8:29 am

Good save.


The next collar might be better with the tag riveted to it instead of dangling.

Yes, you're right. You pick up things along the way. I couldn't imagine something like this happening but there you go..

What a cute dog! Glad things worked out for you and that you were prepared for the situation. Can't tell you how many times people that need a knife react in a horrified way when you produce the tool they need from your pocket.

And that’s why you carry a knife.

You never know when you might need one.

z1r wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 9:46 am

What a cute dog! Glad things worked out for you and that you were prepared for the situation. Can't tell you how many times people that need a knife react in a horrified way when you produce the tool they need from your pocket.

Other Person: Needs something cut, but doesn't have the right tool
You: Produces appropriate cutting tool
Other Person: (shocked voice) "What do you need to carry a knife like that for?"
You: "This, obviously."

Vamais wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 12:17 pm

Other Person: Needs something cut, but doesn't have the right tool
You: Produces appropriate cutting tool
Other Person: (shocked voice) "What do you need to carry a knife like that for?"
You: "This, obviously."

I (like most of us) have been in that exact scenario more times that I can count. My response is usually

.
.
.
Other Person: (shocked voice) "Why do you carry a knife everywhere?"
Me: (shocked voice) "Why don't you?"

It’s always great to hear examples of Spyderco knives being used to help solve emergency situations. Emergency situations that require a good knife don’t come up very often, but when they do, nothing compares to having a nice, sharp problem solver.

As far as if someone needs a knife in a non-emergency and doesn’t have one, I usually won’t offer them the use of my knife (unless they really know me and I really know them, and they know that I carry a knife). Even then, if something needs to be cut in such a situation, I’ll cut it myself.

I still remember a couple incidences back in the ‘90s, when someone appeared to be struggling with something, and I offered them the use of a little Case medium stockman I carried at the time. Both declined; one of them declined in a hostile manner. The latter person was trying to tear open a bag of snack food with her teeth and doing a lousy job of it. So I asked her if she’d like to use my pocketknife. When she refused my knife, she gave me a dirty look as if I’d said something profane to her, narrowed her beady little eyes and coldly said, “NO.” Apparently, I had insulted her dignity by offering her the use of my benign little knife, so she went back to tearing at the package with her teeth, shaking her head back and forth like a puppy with a slipper.



Jim

James Y wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 1:25 pm

Apparently, I had insulted her dignity by offering her the use of my benign little knife, so she went back to tearing at the package with her teeth, shaking her head back and forth like a puppy with a slipper.



Jim

Great imagery Jim,

Cheers
Erik

This makes me think of a couple videos I have seen online recently of people getting on elevators work their dogs on a leash behind them. The doors close while the dog is still on the leash outside of the doors, and quickly turns into a hanging incident with the elevator going up and pulling the dog up and against the closed doors.

On both occasions someone close by was able to save the dogs, but on one the person struggled with the collar and managed to undo it in the nick of time. The whole time I was screaming, "Cut the leash!" in my mind.

Couldn't it just be unclipped? Not trying to be a jerk here, but the collar has a clip on it and you wouldn't have needed a sharp knife next to the face of panicking dog. But I do understand sometimes a human panics too, and the easy options are overlooked.

BornIn1500 wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 2:06 pm

Couldn't it just be unclipped? Not trying to be a jerk here, but the collar has a clip on it and you wouldn't have needed a sharp knife next to the face of panicking dog. But I do understand sometimes a human panics too, and the easy options are overlooked.

We tried to open the plastic clasp/ clip but she had twisted the collar when trying to escape. I put my own hand between the collar and her neck to protect her when cutting the collar.

Good save! Glad to see that she is doing well.

Vamais wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 12:17 pm

z1r wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 9:46 am

What a cute dog! Glad things worked out for you and that you were prepared for the situation. Can't tell you how many times people that need a knife react in a horrified way when you produce the tool they need from your pocket.

Other Person: Needs something cut, but doesn't have the right tool
You: Produces appropriate cutting tool
Other Person: (shocked voice) "What do you need to carry a knife like that for?"
You: "This, obviously."

That summarizes things perfectly!

Glad the dog is ok! Good save Larry.


Didn't save a life, but I saved some time yesterday and enlightened the coworkers on
why you should carry a knife. I was in different departments lab (not mine where I have my tools). We had to open a SIM card slot on a test device, one of those ones you need a paperclip or tool to open. Nobody had one. They were about to walk to a different building and lab to go get one, but I saw a twist tie holding one of the USB cables. So I grabbed it and used my Lil Native to shave the plastic down to the wire, and used the wire to pop the SIM slot open.

Glad she's ok and that the owner did not panic ! Seeing your dog/cat bouncing around and screaming (the sound can only be qualified as screaming IMHO) can be stressful.

My cat did block his neck twice in a burlap bag. I don't know what I had, but this sure was a Spyderco ! Once as a kitten, her anti-flee collar got blocked in her maw and she was literally doing backlip on backlips. I had to catch her, get cut in the process and cut that mean collar.
Never again did she wear such a thing !

As long as we're telling stories about the benefit of sharp knives and dogs...

About a year ago, a stray dog wandered into my apartment complex. He was old and clearly arthritic, and someone must have just dumped him off. I scooped him up and took him to a friend of mine who does animal rescue, and she could tell he'd been neglected for quite a while. She looked at his collar, and it had started to become embedded in his neck, and by her estimate it hadn't been off of him in years because it was just totally encrusted with grime. She said that she needed to go get some shears to get it off, but before she got even five feet away I'd sliced it off of him. She went, "Wow! How sharp do you keep your knives?!"

He was unfortunately way beyond the point of recovery. We think he may have had some kind of dementia too, because he would just wander around inside of her garage until his paws bled. Sadly, he had to be put down, but at least he lived out his last couple of weeks on a nice farm with other dogs, plenty of food and plenty of grass to roll around in.

Here he is with a proper leash and collar on. We only had a tag for my friend's dog Sophie, but we called him Bear. He was a good boy.