You know, it’s just not a party until someone shows up with a lamp shade on her head.
No, really, we were having a hard time hearing her bark, so we set her up with a surgically-attached megaphone.
No, really, she’s going to a costume party as Queen Elizabeth.
OK, fine. On Sunday, not long after I got back from Michigan, she tore her foot open a little bit near her upper pad on her left leg. The dog next door started barking, Canis Minor* chased after her (there’s a fence between the yards and the dogs love mixing it up with the fence between them), and turned a minor injury into a pretty big and gruesome gash, 10 cm long and quite deep. A trip to the animal hospital later (of course this had to happen on the one day our regular vet was closed, so we get charged extra for the emergency) and she had the dressing and the collar on. She also came home stoned out of her mind from the procedure, which was actually pretty funny. She came down after a few hours and is now more like her normal self.
That’s why the live video chat was late, and I appreciate the well-wishes from all the listeners. CM is feeling a lot better, but the dressing stays on for several more days. She’ll be hopping around quite a bit for a while, but she doesn’t seem to mind the collar. She’s a weird dog.
*In the long-standing blog tradition, this is a pseudonym.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Oh owch. That oughta hurt. Hope she recovers well!
May 13th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Can CM pick up the discovery channel on that thing? Or maybe search for radio signals from space? Poor pooch. Best wishes for a speedy recovery : )
May 13th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Heh, my dog also have had that ‘megaphone’ once, but we called it High Energy Cosmic Rays Reciver
May 13th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Awwww. Poor girl. My three pups and I are hoping she feels better soon.
Jen:)
May 13th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Aww she’s a pretty dog! Very intelligent eyes.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Canis Minor joins the SETI project the hard way. Poor baby, here’s a =kiss= to make it feel better
and another just for being so cute. =kiss=
May 13th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
What is it with humans who need to stick an inverted lamp shade around their dog’s neck? I know in this case to stop the dog licking it’s wound. But I ‘ve see many dog’s in this state without any visible wounds to lick.
Then again, it’s much better the previous entry where many humans responding where wearing “a-political” lampshades over their heads while they where typing.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I am surprised at you, Mr. Bad Astronomer - I have seen Canis Major
many times and that photo doesn’t look anything like it!
How did dogs ever survive without us?
May 13th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Well, in her case she tears her pads a lot from running so hard, so we know from experience that she tends to pull off bandages. She can barely reach the top of this one because the cone is a shade small (shade! hahaha!) so it’s frayed a bit, but the dressing gets changed tomorrow anyway.
The really hard part is that she’s very active (like, total spazz jumping running having fun), and keeping her inside and calm is difficult. But she’s dealing.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hope she’s feeling better soon!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
be careful of her barks with the megaphone on her head, the sonic shock could implode your house
jokes aside, i bet she’s a big sweety, who likes tummy rubs, hope all turns out well
ohh one more joke, remember when brian (the dog from family guy) got a cone on his head and peter filled it with dog food, practically drowning brian, that was funny
and a bit of philosophy -
“dogs say - you feed me and shelter me, you must be a god
cats say - you feed me and shelter me, I must be a god”
May 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Phil,
What qualifies you to have an opinion on your dog? Stick to astronomy!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Oops, forgot the brackets. Don’t flame me, people!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Good thing this happened in the spring. Our oldest mutt had to have surgery a few Decembers back, and the first time he went outside his sniffing for a place to go resulted in a cone full of snow so heavy he couldn’t lift his head. Then as he pushed on with his head down he gathered more snow–eventually high centering with his rear legs almost off the ground. I rescued him ASAP, but it was not easy. as i was slipping all over the snow trying to help while laughing.
BTW, we got better TV reception while he had it on!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Well BA, maybe it’s about time you buy her dog shoes!
(Yea, as if. I shudder at the idea of dressing up my dog. It’s so cheesy.)
May 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
My wife an I refer to that contraption as the “Cone of Shame”. Our Black Lab has had to wear it numerous times.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Is this what the dogs on Mirror Remulak look like?
I wonder how many people born after 1980 get that one?
Thank goodness dogs can’t read - yet.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
“She’s a weird dog.”
All dogs are weird.
Just not quite as weird as cats!
Hope she gets well soon!
May 13th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Simpsons reference
“Your lamp’s running away!”
/Simpsons
(That’s what we always say about our dogs when they have to be lamp-shaded.)
May 13th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I never realized how much our dog walked right behind us until she was wearing one of those lampshades. The lampshades are quite sharp, and will cut the back of your calf.
Speedy healing…
May 13th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Aww, she looks so cute, all dressed up - the belle of the ball! Hope she heals up soon. I’m sure she just loves wearing the lampshade.
May 13th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Check that she’s able to get to her food and water comfortably. Sometimes the lamp shade gets in the way.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I can’t begin to describe the *glare* that our cat gave us the entire time she had to wear that silly cone. She kept catching the edge between the floorboards, and she started walking backwards as a result.
May 13th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Our cat developed allergies while we’ve been here in Italy and has to wear her E-collar periodically. Otherwise, she’ll scratch her ears to shreds.
Whenever we put it on, she goes through an adjustment period where she catches on every single doorway in the hall and traps herself in the litter box. And - oooh, the looks we get.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
That look in her eyes say: What have you done to me.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
well the cone keeps her from taking the bandaid so the injury does not get anymore sirius.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
We have three Border Collies, and I know from experience what it’s like having to “keep them calm” for any period of time.
Good woofs from ours to yours…