My Naked Dog

Shay and I have had a lot of quality time in the last month, with Carter in Berlin and Russ spending his weekdays in Minneapolis. Not that Shay thinks of it as quality. She spends her day looking at me with the eyes that beg the question, “Where are my true loves?”
Since I have been locked in my sweat shop working on Christmas presents that have a hard deadline Shay wanders the house, occasionally coming to sleep on the easy chair in the sewing room. I can usually hear her coming down the stairs as the metal leash hook on her collar clanks against itself.  
I noticed last night that Shay appeared to be sneaking into rooms where I was. At first I was unsure how she was able to do this. Was she walking on three legs while her fourth paw held the metal hook against her collar? Only as I was petting her as she snuggled next to me in bed last night did I notice her collar was missing.
A couple of weeks ago I thought her collar was a little big, but I did not tighten it because it was not that big a deal. Well now I should have done something about it when I noticed it at first. I searched the house, looking in all her favorite sleeping nests, to no avail. Where in the world did she put that collar?
Since Shay had ditched this collar, the one Carter bought her at Bonaroo, I went to find an older model. These too were no where to be found. Had Shay secretly taken every collar and buried them outside somewhere? Was she having some hippie rebellion?
When we went for our walk I looped her leash around the handle loop on her neck and I held the metal hook end. She did not seem to mind walking this way and never pulled so as to tighten the loop around her neck. It seemed risky, but what were my choices?
I am hoping that Russ has better lucking finding at least one of her collars, but my eye sight is about a thousand times better than his, so it is unlikely. Maybe Shay will find it and carry it up to our bed where she likes to deposit all her treasures. Until then, I think she is really enjoying being naked and not having that metal hook clanging in her ears as she walks. I can’t really blame her.