One of Highland’s favorite dog toys is — or was — a snake plush toy that has been gutted, leaving just the “skin”. But Highland likes it a lot. It’s his favorite crate toy.
Highland was neutered on Sunday. He absolutely insisted on licking at his incision. That’s bad, he must not do that. I tried to dissuade him, but as soon as I looked away, he curled up and began licking. So I tried putting him in an inflatable doughnut collar. He defeated that. SO I had to put him in a cone.
That upset him. But rather than trying to rip the cone off, as many others have done, he became dejected. His reaction reminded me of Steve Martin’s “And this is all I need” skit in the movie “The Jerk” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VbI5zcB8Ac if you’ve never seen it).
I cannot say that in the days since then Highland has become “happy” about the cone. But once he mastered coming up the back steps while wearing it (at first I had to climb the steps with him, holding the rim of the cone up so it didn’t catch on the steps and flip him sideways) he lightened up. Once he discovered that the thing can be “weaponized” and used to aggravate the other dogs (and us) he has decided it’s kind of fun. He especially likes coming up behind Buddy Beagle and scooping Buddy’s hindquarters up in the cone. Buddy hates that. Highland thinks it’s funny.
Still, it’s not likely that he will be upset when I take it off of him in a few more days. Just one more experience along his path to a forever home.
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