My pet epiphany of the week is: when you own four dogs, it’s really dumb to not have an e-collar. This revelation came to me on Monday when I looked down at my black dog Leia and noticed that she was furiously rubbing at her face. Her left eye was red and angry looking.
Poor Leia definitely had something going on with her eye and she just wouldn’t leave it alone. All that rubbing was making the problem worse, but you can’t explain that to a dog. After I called the vet and begged for an early appointment, we looked all over the house for an e-collar substitute.
For those who don’t know, an e-collar (or Elizabethan collar) is one of those big cones you can put on your pet to keep the critter from licking himself. In this case, I wanted the opposite effect. I wanted an e-collar, so Leia couldn’t rub her eye with her paw.
In any case, our search through the house was fruitless. In the past, I’ve read you can make some sort of quasi-effective e-collar using a bucket, but that approach didn’t look very promising, given the materials available.
For a while, James and I took turns holding onto Leia to keep her from rubbing. Eventually, I put a bandana over her eye. She really didn’t appreciate the pirate look one little bit. However, she did lie down on the floor looking sad and left her eye alone until it was time to go to the vet.
The excitement of the car ride kept her busy as well. Yet the first words out of my mouth after we got there was, "how much is an e-collar?"