The talk of the house lately has been our dog Tigger, specifically his testicles and what happened to them. He got neutered last week, and our 6-year-old son has a lot of questions. The questions started when he first encountered a set a furry balls on the dog, and proceeded to let everyone know about it, constantly. The part about the donut refers to his head gear. He hated the cone, and the donut was a life saver. He’s SO much more comfortable now!

As far as terminology goes, I am aware that “balls” is not the technical term, and maybe I should refer to them by their real name. But as I mentioned, I have a 6-year-old boy. I also have a 50-year-old husband. But when confronted with the fact the dog suddenly had a pair, they both equal out in terms of maturity and talking about the aforementioned balls.

After the neutering, he was sent home in the infamous “cone of shame.” He didn’t want to move, and when he did move, he rammed into everything. I posted about it on Facebook, and many people recommended the donut style recovery collar. I found the blue one in the photo on Amazon for only $11, which I wish I would have gotten first since the vet charged $35 for the cone! It’s soft and comfortable and worked perfectly. It comes flat, and you blow it up and then thread their collar through the loops, and that prevents them from pulling it off.

He adjusted to life in the donut so much better. Click here to see the one I got on Amazon. *affiliate link

We initially thought about breeding our dog, because his markings are so unique. He’s a purebred Australian Shepherd, with a red merle coat, one blue eye and one golden green. He got his name from the tiger stripes on his nose. He is just so pretty it seemed a shame to end his lineage. But several things weighed in favor of the neutering- I’ve always preferred rescuing over breeders, his parents will continue his line, and I knew deep down that would be NO way I’d be able to let those puppies go. I realized I did not want to risk suddenly having 10 dogs.

We only ended up with a purebred Aussie by some kind of dog fairy miracle. I applied for dogs from three different rescues, and was not only turned down, but they didn’t even ever reply. So I got pretty fed up with the rescues and had nearly given up. I started looking at breeders but could never bring myself to go through with it. Our previous animals all came to us in unique ways, in need of a home, and I felt like the right dog in need would eventually find us. And of course, he did.

One minute I was driving home from the gym, and the next I was texting my husband about picking up a dog. My friend had found him on CraigsList, needing to be rehomed. She was about to get him herself, but then recalled how I’d been looking for an Aussie to adopt and she called me. One look at that little tiger face and I was hooked.

So suddenly we had a dog. And now he’s 7 months old and it was time for the neutering. Of course my husband had to act like I’m the ONLY one making this happen. As if he can’t admit that the neutering is a good choice. I mean, we would like to be able to take him to dog parks! So I set the appointment and took care of it.

All went well and he is back to his normal rambunctious self. The stitches dissolved on their own, and he healed up with no problems. The donut did a good job of keeping him from messing with them, and we will definitely be saving it for future use. No more cones!