Making a Dog Cone

Kinley only puked that once, happily for me. Ever since I've fed him 30 minutes prior to giving him his antibiotics, which he hates. However, a spoonful of yogurt is worth its weight in gold. One spoonful and I can get him to SIT in order to take his medication. Why? Because he knows he gets another spoonful after.

Bribery, yes.
Effective, definitely.

So Friday night was a bust. I spent most of the night looking after the dog. He seemed fined Saturday morning, so I put him in his crate to go to my class. Upon my return, I saw that he ripped open all of his tail wounds. sigh.

The vet was closed, meaning no "cone" for kinley. So I called Ken's mom who deals with dogs all the time. "Usually, I'd tell folks to go to the vet, but not my crafty daughter-in-law. Here's what you do." She told me to get a plastic paint bucket big enough to fit over the dog's head. Then, cut off the bottom of the bucket. Cut 6 holes or so around the small base of the bucket so his collar can be weaved in. Attach makeshift bucket-cone to said dog.

And then I started laughing. Oh, he looked so sad. Wouldn't move a muscle. Tail tucked with these giant expressive eyes that were so confused. It was so funny, I tried to take a picture but the camera was missing the CF card. But he's doing better now. I make him wear it at night and when I'm at work. He hates it, but it's effective. He's been sleeping most of the weekend. We went on a long walk yesterday. I think he passed me this weekend in terms of total number of hours slept. I am jealous. But I also don't have two raging infections wreaking havoc in my body, so I know I'm also pretty lucky.

Excited to let the dog out of his cone after work. He gets so happy when I take it off. Like I saved him from the horrible person who put it on him. Little does he know it's the same person. I try to explain to him why he has to wear it in the first place, but then I realize I'm talking to the dog again.

Ken gets back tonight. Just in time for Kinley's daily ear cleaning to rid the ear infection. Hooray!