A Little Creativity Saves Big Bucks

Since my children are at an age now where having mom buy them festive holiday outfits is way beyond cool or even cute, I have had to transfer my energy for that elsewhere. Since my dogs can't speak to let me know they think I'm making them look like dorks, they are now my victims.

Let me start off by saying that I am not one of those who dresses up their dogs in costumes. I actually stood in Target recently with my mouth open as I watched a man and woman argue about which costume their little "Sophie" would look better in, the princess or the dinosaur. When they couldn't decide they chose to get both, that way they could alternate them. That's a little over the top, even for me. The only time one of my dogs has ever been in costume was poor Ringo when Austin showed him 4-H. One of the classes was a costume class and they got runner up when Ringo was dressed as a pig and my son was the showman. I still don't think Ringo has completely forgiven me for allowing that to happen. It's hard for a dog to maintain dignity while wearing a pink snout.

So instead of costumes I have decorative collars for the dogs. They currently have patriotic collars and Christmas collars. I wanted to expand their collection, and decided that instead of Halloween collars, I wanted them to have Autumn type collars, so they could wear them longer. The problem is that only ones I have been able to find have been on the internet, and are in my opinion, ridiculously over-priced. So I decided to make my own. I bought plain collars for less than $5.00 each. Each of our dogs wears a different color collar and it matches their harness. That way when we are putting harnesses on, we know right away which one goes with which dog (no guessing on sizes). So anyhow, I got the cheapo collars in their colors and bought the foil Autumn leaves confetti stuff, and tiny rhinestones in different colors. I grabbed my glue gun and went to work. I think they turned out

kind of cute. This picture shows the finished collars. Subtle, yet festive. And the best part is, they were cheap. Instead of paying $20-$30 each (which was the prices I found on the internet), I paid maybe $6 each, tops by making them. SCORE! However, if you recall...I have 4 dogs. And as you can see, I only show 3 collars. The pink one is Mollys. The black one is Tuckers. And the blue one is Ringos. So, where is Gabbys collar? Gabby doesn't get one.

For over six weeks poor Gabby has been dealing with ongoing chronic pain. She is always looking sad, rarely even moves around, and doesn't play. She just lays down on her favorite spot...the top of an overstuffed chair. If she moves wrong, she'll yelp or whimper in pain. It's been so heartbreaking! Our vet couldn't figure out the problem, so we were sent to a specialist. He diagnosed Degenerative Disk Disease, because her symptoms and tests he performed on her support that diagnosis,but it can't be proven. The x-rays and cat scans don't show anything wrong. So he feels she has tiny disk fragments that are irritating the nerve which is causing her pain, or, the worst case senario is that it could be a tumor. At this point, whatever it is, is too small to do anything about. So we wait. She is on pain pills and we are hoping she'll feel better soon, which means it was fragments & they have dislodged and will go away, relieving her of pain. Regardless, she is not to wear a collar ever again, because she'll be highly sensitive in that area. Therefore, I can't decorate a collar for Gabby. So instead I attached a couple of harvest colored bows to her purple harness. Not quite the same as the collars, but still cute I think. Don't ya think?