Last summer, Lilly’s entire flat-buckle collar, tags and all, went missing … right off her neck. The dogs wear collars 24/7, so when Lilly came up from the creek bed muddy from nose to armpits with a naked neck, that’s something a girl like me notices.
Because I tend to form emotional attachments to certain things and sew all kinds of meaning to them, I was crushed. I harbored this idea that it would be Lilly’s one and only collar for her entire life. Strange, I know.
I had this other fancy, pink leather collar (and matching leash) that I got for Lilly’s on-camera interview debut (that never saw light of TV tube). So, that’s what she has been wearing ever since … because I just cannot find another collar I really like. It seems I’m pickier about what Lilly wears than what I wear.
I meant the pink collar as a stop-gap measure, but it has kind of grown on me. We even used the matching leash, and I too wore pink when we accepted our Community Engagement Award earlier this year.
THEN, miracle of ALL miracles … A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon her old collar in the middle pasture. While out looking for our baby weasel friend, I found it in the grass on the bank above the creek.
It was still snapped closed.
Take in that news for a second. Plastic, snap-buckle still firmly locked.
That means, Lilly got it caught on something and somehow pulled it off her head without choking herself to DEATH.
Keep in mind, that I cinch the dogs’ collars fairly snug … especially because of Lilly’s powerful freakout-and-flee response.
So, it seems … along with the rattlesnake bites, the accidental poisonings, and Lilly’s many other near misses … that we got lucky again.
When I saw the collar still snapped shut, I held out hope I could wash it, remove the rust so that Lilly could once again wear it. BUT, on closer inspection, the buckle is indeed broken.
So, she continues to wear the pink collar, but I’ll probably clean up and move the ID tag from the old collar to her current one because it has our address on it, along with phone numbers. (The one she wears now only has our home and cell numbers on it.)
Maybe some day, I’ll again find an “every day” dog collar I like. There is a big pet expo coming up in Denver soon. Perhaps I’ll see one there.
If you have suggestions of collar lines that are stylish but still make sense for a couple of rough-and-tumble mountain girls. Do let us know.
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its amazing you found it like that. i have saved collars before after replacing my pups. then on occasion the cats “wear” them around the house playing.
when we got carlie, after my other 3 pups passed and we just had jd and the cats, i put one of the passed pups collars for him until we could decide, since collars can run $10+ easily. then we bought jd and carlie matching collars. when riley came around we bought him one to match them. roxie moved in and we wanted her a pink version of the boys. we havent found one we like yet so I put one of the cats collars on her since shes so little. also the bell helps locate her sometimes. also we since figured out shes more of a purple girl, not a pink girl.
i put collars on the cats and they one by one took them off themselves, i found them around the house still clasped.
Zoo — I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who gets caught up in the collar color, etc. I really shouldn’t care this much. :o)
I’m glad you found it, but sorry Lilly can’t wear it again. Our dogs lose collars around here like I don’t know what. When Emma went missing last summer, after we had finally given up on finding her body, we next concentrated on just finding her collar. We felt if we could just have her collar home, it would be at least a part of her that we might bury. Unfortunately, we never found the collar either, but your post made me think that maybe one day we still might.
Congrats on finding the collar . .sorry it’s broken 🙁 I had a dog walking biz for several years and tried out all of the different collars – I love the Lupine “combo” collars. They have a martingale style, so they can’t back out of it. The only drawback is that they are not designed to be worn all the time. We take Cali’s off when she is in the house.
I hope you find another collar that you love!! Here’s the link to Lupine’s site 😉 http://lupinepet.com/medium-dogs/wild-thing/wild-thing-combo-collar
I know that Lupine makes great collars, Julie. Thanks for the idea. I’m just SO paranoid about the dogs getting loose / lost without a collar on … I worry about the ones intended to be taken off at home. Both dogs are microchipped, of course, but I cannot tell you how many dogs I find and return thanks to collars with tags.