The Dog Ate My...

...Diva Cup.  Sigh.  That's right, the Diva Cup is missing and I have enough circumstantial evidence to deduce that Sirius ate it.

Exhibit A:  Upon returning home from brunch with friends, the Diva Cup's cloth bag was lying in the middle of the living room.  That is not where I keep it, which certainly made us stop to consider how it got there.

Exhibit B:  The cloth bag had the instruction paper still folded up inside.  Its disheveled state was, shall we say, evidence that it had somehow gotten quite wet, as the paper was all slobber-hardened, wrinkly and weird.

Exhibit C:  Sheepish dog as soon as I pick up the bag (Ah ha!  Busted!)

Exhibit D:  The cup is nowhere, I repeat, nowhere to be found.

Sirius does not often take anything more than the sponge off the edge of the bathtub (which he loves to tear into little pieces but does not appear to ingest), or one of Rob's socks (which he only moves from room to room, never demolishes).  The cup's home had been in a shaving kit bag (unzipped) on the bottom shelf of our toiletries shelf in the upstairs bathroom.  Homefry must have really nosed around up there to decide that of all the fun things - cotton balls, pads, tampons, razors - the Diva Cup (which, by the way, I had never even used) was the one thing his heart desired most.

Dogs.  Who knows what they're thinking?

So, why have a Diva Cup I never even used?  Well, I bought it a couple of months ago, intending to do away with tampons.  Each time my period begins, however, I realize that maybe I should have practiced inserting/removing it before I actually need it to work properly.  So I put it back and think I'll remember for next month.

A few years ago I switched to "natural, organic cotton" tampons and disposable pads, after reading a lot of compelling evidence against the use of commercial rayon-based tampons.  I like them well enough, but after a few months of not being able to use the tampons last summer, I realized that I'd rather not use them at all.  For one thing, they create a lot of post-consumer waste.  Even if I buy organic cotton, using fewer chemicals overall, there's still the ecological cost of manufacturing the cotton, the packaging, the tampons and pads themselves - all so that I can use them for a couple of hours and then send them to the landfill.  And please make no mistake, solid waste such as tampons do not magically disappear when they arrive at the water treatment plant!  They get scooped out by a mechanical arm and sent - you guessed it, to the landfill.  Rob went on a field trip to one of our local water treatment plants last year and learned all about it.  I wasn't sure I could go "all pad, all the time", however, as tampons can be very handy for use on busy teaching days.  A friend recommended the Diva Cup and I trust her so I bought one.

Of course I could go buy another one, but another factor in my procrastination in its use was the fact that I'm less and less inclined to plug myself up with anything.  Whether its a cup that catches the flow or a bundle of fabric that absorbs it, it's still holding up inside of me everything that's meant to flow out during that time of the month.

So today I'm sewing myself some nice, soft, cotton-flannel pads.  I have a couple of night-time Glad Rags which I liked so much more than disposable pads that I decided to try them during the day, as well.  They're softer, they don't make me hot and sweaty (particularly uncomfortable during the flow, if I do say so myself), and they can be used over and over and over again.  Just rinse and/or soak in cold water before washing.  It's like using cloth diapers rather than disposable:  less garbage waste, less money over time and - if you have some basic sewing skills - super easy to make!

Back to the Dog:  Of course we are keeping an eye on him for any sign that he is having difficulty passing the cup.  Hopefully he at least chewed it into small pieces, rather than swallowing it whole.  I have all kinds of terrible images of what a whole Diva Cup could do passing through a dog's digestive system.  His behavior is, as always, exuberant (to say the least).  Keep your fingers crossed!  I'm going to keep looking for it, just in case......

Comments

[Kerrie]

For people who can't sew, but want to support artists/craftsters, Etsy has awesome fabric menstrual pads. http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=menstrual%20pad