Monday, October 13, 2008

Eargate

So, N's grandparents and I have been at loggerheads as to whether or not to do anything about her "lazy ear" situation.  I find it kind of endearing, particularly when we play dress-up -- see Tourag Puppy below -- but grandma and grandpa find it undignified.  Breeder Helen attributes this situation to larger- and heavier-than-average ears, inherited, apparently from her mother and (great-?)grandfather...  


"Fixing" it would require that I do the following:  

1. Shave/buzz/seriously-trim the hair on the inside of her ear,

2. Cut an ear-shaped piece of cardboard from the inside of a roll of toilet paper (which apparently have the perfect curvature or something), and 

3. Using fabric glue (!), afix this ear-shaped piece of cardboard to the shaved/buzzed/seriously-trimmed inside of her ear for a *week* or until it falls out if that happens before a week is up, which would at least spare me -- and her -- my having to rip the thing out of her ear.


I then check to see if the ear will stand up on its own when the other one does -- as in, when she's "alert" -- and, if not, repeat until it does.  

Not sure I want to run try this home-ec experiment on my sweet puppy, but am also getting sick of all the "Oh look at its floppy ear!"s on the street...  Vhat to do, vhat to do??

3 comments:

jgm said...

Have you decided yet? I'd probably leave it, unless there is a good safety reason for her to raise both ears...it's not like you're showing her, right?

coygrrrl said...

are you really dressing puppy up as a Tuareg?!?!
sounds like something I would do. I once tried to put a Kafiyyeh on Oskar. he objected. loudly

negeen said...

I'm seriously considering it, for purely cosmetic reasons. (As in, I don' think there's any safety or other 'important' reason for her to have both ears up when alert.) But I just haven't been able to bring myself to do it yet...

And as for you Amy, our dress-up sessions last approximately 2 seconds, so don't feel bad if Oskar won't tolerate them. It's more that I'll drape something over her for her to wrestle off when she's being crazy and needs distracting =). How's the new kitty doing?