Some items that are designed for safety end up being so amusing that it's easy to forget that they are a safety item and begin to treat it like a toy. Things that come to mind include glow sticks, reflectors placed on clothing in an outline of bizarre pictures that light up when a headlight is shined on them, and the current favorite in our household: the lighted dog collar.

I wish I knew who came up with the idea that a dog should wear a collar around its neck with bulbs that light up like a Christmas tree. I realize it originated as a safety precaution, but in the dark out in the yard at night,Glow Collars for Dogs especially on a black dog, a lighted dog collar can be a very amusing spectacle. It's almost as good as the night we discovered that we could break open glow sticks, put silly designs all over our cats' bodies and then let them run around in the neighborhood. It's really a jolting image to see a fluorescent smiley face traveling at full speed close to the ground across a dark parking lot.

The first time I saw a dog wearing a lighted dog collar I was on the beach at night and I saw what looked like a glowing line running along the beach toward the water. I thought I was hallucinating until I looked closer and realized that the glowing line was attached to a dog's neck. Right there, I was convinced that every dog should wear a lighted collar at night because it looks so cool. The very next day we went to the store and bought our pet a lighted dog collar of his very own.