Ears to ya

Seriously.  Who do we call about making our household into a reality TV show?!  I'm sure all of you would watch!  The latest trauma and drama in our household?  Ears.

You humans are really unbelievable.  The STUFF you worry about when it comes to us dogs is just this side of crazy.  You worry about everything from how we eat, to how we poop, to how we look.  And honestly, while we also care about eating, we don't really think much about pooping and we certainly do not care how we look.  Well - nobody in this household anyway.  Frodo and I could not care LESS if we ever saw another brush.  But obviously my HUMAN cares about how we look - so going on a grooming hiatus never happens here.  Lucky for Elroy, his coat does not require the same amount of brushing that we PONs do.  But Elroy has had a different "beauty issue" the last little while.  His ears.

Picards are supposed to have erect ears.  When they are puppies, the ears are down and then they go up around 3-4 months.  HOWEVER, when they teethe, the ears can apparently go all wonky.  And that's exactly what we saw with the Friendly Giant.  As a baby  puppy, his ears were down.  Then at the beginning of October, his ears were both up.  Like two witches hats.  Awesome.  For about a week.  Then down they came.  And the Flying Nun look was back.

So OF COURSE my human has been reading everything she can find about Picard ears.  And she is stressing about it.  She has communicated with a number of people about it.  Some suggested trimming the hair on his ears.  She did that - but it didn't seem to make a difference.  She fed him cheese so the calcium might help.  He loved the cheese - and so did we, but that didn't seem to make a difference.  She thought about buying a shaver for his ears - but envisioned making a REAL mess.  And then someone suggested a pumice stone...

A pumice stone?  What do you do with a pumice stone?  Who do you call about it?  Why the Vet's office.  Of course.  And she asked to speak to the groomer who works there.  They put my human on hold and then said the groomer JUST left.  Suuuuuuure she did - she heard it was my human calling.  So then my human asked to speak to another woman there who breeds Shelties.  This woman took her call - she must have lost the coin toss.  Anyway, she was VERY helpful and she said they sold pumice stones at the office.  AND if that didn't work, she said our Vet is very good at "taping ears".   My human thinks of taping as a last resort - primarily because she's not sure the Friendly Giant would leave them taped.  She wanted to give this pumice stone a try, first.

After work, she stopped in to get the pumice stone, or what I will now refer to as the magic stone.  Because IF it works, it will be magic.  And she got it home.  And she realized she didn't know exactly what to do with it.  After googling it and going through various You Tube videos showing dogs EATING pumice stones, she finally found one that gave her a BIT of an idea what to do.  The stone acts as a "stripping device" - pulling out hair.  So the poor Friendly Giant was whisked onto the grooming table.  And his ears were "pummeled". Gently of course.  At first my human thought nothing was happening and then she realized fur was flying.  So she pummeled some more. And the FG got more treats.  And she pummeled.  And he got treats.  And when she was finished pummeling him - she was SURE those ears were up a BIT.  I think it was in her imagination - but who knows?  I just don't want my human to get ANY ideas about pummeling my ears!  CAN you imagine THAT?

So now we wait to see what the FG's ears will look like over the next day or two.  And we'll all be waiting with baited breath.  Well, maybe not  ALL of us... 

Now.  Who do I call about that TV show?