Conehead vs. Dogula

I keep fluctuating between having a good idea for commentary on this blog and not really having anything to say - nothing of interest anyway. Basically I'm trying to get myself geared up to kick ass on another project at work to help propel me to the next promotion and get through the usual holiday shit so my life can be back to normal and Lena and I can get back on track with our training for the next 5K. Which reminds me, I meant to search for a 5K in the metro area sometime this spring. I've been meaning to do that for a few weeks now so let's see if I can actually remember to do it before I log off this evening.

There has been some recent "excitement" in our part of the world. First, I finally managed to get my ass in gear and take care of a little piece of personal business - at work of course - on Monday.

I called the vet to get Tas' annual exam scheduled and to get Greta's spay set up. Well, it so happened that they had an opening Tues. morning for surgery, so I went ahead and scheduled it. We decided to have her micro-chipped while she was out too since SH really wanted that done. AND it was FIVE dollars cheaper to do it while she was already under for surgery (they do that as incentive to have it done), which really put a dent in the FIVE HUNDRED dollar total bill! Well, we did opt for the pre-op blood work to check her clotting factor along with a couple other things to be on the safe side and she was due for a few other final vaccinations, so it wasn't just the spay that cost that much. Still, it was a bit of a shock. But I digress - so I drop her off Tues. morning for her girlie surgery. As expected, they need to weigh her, which I was hoping for anyway since the last time she was weighed was when she was about 6 months old and was about 67 lbs at the time. Big brother Shilo was 72 lbs. So now she's a little over 8 months and when she gets on the scale it does the bouncing back and forth 70 - 94 - 83 - 90 etc. It finally stops (roughly) at 89.4. Yup, our little Fat Girl really is FAT! OK, she's more "girthy" than anything. She outweighs her brother by almost 20 lbs and I don't think she's quite done growing yet at 8 1/2 months! WOW!

She came out of surgery just fine and we picked her up Wed. afternoon. As we expected - and somewhat sadistically hoped for - she donned the plastic cone (or the Elizabethan collar, as a fellow cat shelter lady called it). We tried our best not to laugh at her outright, settled up the bill, got our instructions for pain meds, suture monitoring, etc. and SH led her out the door. After listening to the vet tech explain to us how it will probably take her a couple days or so to get used to maneuvering with the collar on, what does she do? On the way out of the vet clinic - WHAM! She runs smack into the metal frame doorway, creating a large fracture down the side of the cone. So I go BACK into the clinic, wait a couple MORE minutes for a free tech to come out and ask if I could possibly have another cone because my gifted dog managed to nearly destroy the other one on the way out the door. Luckily the tech just laughed, said sure and to hang on a minute while she went and got ANOTHER one.

We tried to hold out as long as possible with that first cone but, of course, within approximately 1 hour of arriving home, that one was just about hanging off her collar. So we had to break out #2. Here are some fun pics of her trying to navigate the house with the cone head.

Leaving the bedroom (pay no attention to the floor in serious need of refinishing :o):


Trying to get out the back door to go potty:


I love this one. "How the F*CK am I supposed to eat?!


Trying to maintain a shred of dignity by acting casual, as if nothing is different:

Look at the poor pathetic baby with the crazy-milky eyes (they're actually brown):

So Thurs. night comes and I'm alone with Conehead because SH is working an overnight shift. Has anyone out there had to deal with a fairly rambunctious LARGE dog who needs to have a frickin' cone on her head? Let me tell you, it was a real treat! If she wasn't ignoring my commands the first 30 times or so, she was banging, scraping, slamming or bouncing that fucking cone off the wall, bed, nightstand, her kennel - really any object she could find - and LOUDLY. After a while of that and my resulting screaming at her to just lie down, I was finally able to get to sleep, only to be awoken a few times over the course of the night with more of the same. Which, incidently, contributed to the demise of cone #2. By morning the cone was literally hanging off of her collar with no way to secure it in a remotely functionable fashion. I would have called in a little late at work and ran to the vet or Pet.co/Pet.smart to pick up another cone but I couldn't remember for sure if I had a morning meeting and frankly I was so close to my breaking point that I needed to just get the hell out of there and away from her before I wound up smacking her silly. After that I can really see how shaken baby syndrome happens. Luckily SH was able to make the run after he got off work and was actually able to do a little research and found the "Co.mfy Cone" which is basically the same deal but it is made with nylon fabric over a foam structure that velcros shut so #1 It won't break apart when slammed into walls, doorways, etc. and #2 it's got to be a bit more comfortable and almost act like a pillow when she rests. So now this is what she's sporting:

Unfortunately, it's hard to see in these pics but it almost looks like a flower (like a tulip) and her head is a giant stamen. I asked SH if they came in other colors like red or purple but he said they only came in black. Now she looks like Dogula. She vants to suck your blooood. It's also trimmed in reflective material so when Dogula goes out searching for victims after dark she's still safely visible!

We also made holiday cookies as part of SH's birthday celebration. (He's been wanting to make cookies. Isn't that cute?) More on the birthday festivities later - this post is already really long and I need to do more searching on 5Ks. But I will leave you with a photo of the family room progress as mentioned previously (even this section is not done yet) and a sneak peak at what Christmas cookies look like in the Gumby-SH household. Later! :)




And yes, it was two adults that decorated these cookies...