In Love With Some Wolfies: breaking leads and getting new collars

Ginger is still being incarcerated. Which means I tie her up with her lead before taking Larry for his walk. It's worked the last week. But the other day, Ginger decided enough was enough. As we set down the driveway I hear rustling behind me, only to discover Ginger had pulled so hard she'd broken her lead. WTF Ginger!!!

I dragged her back up and grabbed the second lead and tied her to a more sturdy pole, thinking nothing of it. The lead has survived 3 dogs after all, so it was probably just getting old.

She sits placidly enough. But the minute Larry and I hit the driveway, I hear a bang and a wrangle of chicken wire. I turn around to see my dog who is supposed to be resting, about to burrow her way through the chicken wire in my veggie patch. I cry out in displeasure and I make my way back to the gate. She stopped upon hearing my name, ears cocked and alert. But gave up that pretense soon enough and before I could reach her, all 31 kilos of her was barreling towards me. My Goodness, Ginger.

I ended up locking her in the laundry before setting off for the *third* time for Larry's walk. The only good that came out of that was that Larry got to run three times chasing me up and down the driveway as I dragged Ginger's sorry carcass back to the house.

Methinks Ginger doesn't like to be kept out of the fun when it comes to walks and being part of the pack. Here's one example of where pack mentality isn't necessarily a good thing.

Never underestimate what 30 kilos and the desire for a walk can bring.

Here are the results of all her hard work. The second lead was one we got when we got Elsie. So that's about 6 years old, but really, we hardly ever used the leads after the first year or so, except when we went to Vets, visit family or down to the beach where a lead was really required. At home, they were pretty good off lead.

I'm wondering if part of the reason for her success might stem from the fact that the wolfies got some new bling. I finally got around to ordering some collars for them with their own names on them. It hurt my heart to put Fred's collar on Larry so soon after Fred's passing. But common sense ruled out after the second time Larry got out of the pen. It just wasn't worth the heartache.

I got these sweeties from a seller in Etsy, and I absolutely love them.

Larry: *sniff* *sniff* what are these strange things??

It's the same place that I got Fred's from, but with an additional layer of leather in a contrasting colour, and the trimmings are gold/bronze rather than silver.

You can see the difference between the two collars from the same seller here.

My previous ones were also from Etsy but from a different seller who embroidered the names onto the collars. Unfortunately the dogs' claws would scratch up the embroidery and eventually the name and numbers fell apart. Elsie's collar stood up to a bit more, and hers had a suede backing to it. Ginger's been wearing hers since April. It's great quality and stood the test of time, although I admit that the embroidered name and number was getting a bit tatty, in terms of colour and was getting harder to read.

These new collars have the name and number engraved onto plating, so wear and tear shouldn't be as much of an issue short of the dogs managing to scratch it off. So far Larry's has already started scuffing on the leather part, but that's ok. It's part of the charm.

I ended up getting different colours, if only to help wolfiepup differentiate between the two dogs. Ginger got orange for obvious reasons, and Larry got a spiffy blue. I was originally going to get a lime green but they were completely out. I'm actually pretty happy with the blue, so all's well that ends well.

Larry modelling the spiffy blue.

The collar is also contrasting nicely with her blue bandage. It's already getting dirty here on day 0, after she started playing with Larry the minute she got home.

But yes, the quality of these collars are such, that I think they probably gave Ginger a bit more leverage in being able to break those leads. That, or she really just found some super human strength in spite of her injury. She was *that* desperate to go on the walk with us.

Meanwhile, you will notice that her bandages have been changed from that lovely fashionable yellow with smiley faces to a more sedate and classy blue.

Different vet at the clinic this time. Different bandaging technique. While the Vet bragged about her abilities, I'm not convinced that the one sided sling look is all that practical. In this case perhaps the first Vet knew a bit more about what she was doing, having Ginger in that crop top.

Yesterday morning her wound was pretty much available for access. I was tempted to unbandage it all (I'd watched the Vet put it on her), but it seems the wound has stuck to the bandage. They'd intitially put some webbing in between the wound and the cotton bandage. But Ginger had managed to pull that out completely.

I can't help it if I don't want to be bandaged up. I'm normal, just like the rest of you...

In between her own fussing and Larry's harassment and her own desire to play, that bandage is a sorry state of affairs at the moment. She looks like she's been through a number of wars. And I'm not really due back at the Vet's until next Monday. I may need to insist this time that they put the crop top back on her. I had made a few ventures in that vain, but obviously I was too subtle at the time. Because the Vet kept on reassuring me the wound was covered. Which of course, it isn't now.