Goldens Play the Game of Operation

by Bonnie and Beth
(Plainview, NY, USA)

Pet Costumes: Dr. Phoenix Removes Cavity-Aladdin's Funny Bone In Game of Operation.

On a spooky Halloween night, the evil surgeon Phoenix decided to play a game of Operation. Poor Cavity-Aladdin's nose didn't stop lighting up and buzzing as Phoenix removed his funny bone, spare ribs, and charlie horse. Despite this, the evil doctor proclaimed the Operation a success!

Aladdin and Phoenix are our wonderful golden retriever boys. They love coming with us everywhere, and meeting new people and dogs. They also love dressing up for different holidays and occasions.

One of their favorite things is their special themed birthday parties. Every year, they each get a special party with all kinds of game and decorations to match the theme. This year, for Aladdin’s 9th birthday, he had a Toyland theme.

We decorated the house with oversize versions of all kind of classic toys and games we made out of posterboard. Every year, we make a calendar with a special picture of the dogs for each month, to give to our family and friends for Christmas.

The Toyland theme inspired us to take a picture for the Halloween page of the calendar of the dogs dressed as the Game of Operation. We hadn’t seen any dogs dressed like that before, so we thought it would be something different.

To make the outfit of Cavity-Aladdin, which is based on Cavity-Sam from the game, we used a hospital gown. We cut the shapes of the body part pieces like they have in the game from craft foam. We made red backgrounds with the edges painted silver for each one to look like the holes they have in the gameboard.


We also made signs identifying the various body-parts with arrows pointing to them, like they have on the game. The big red nose is made from a hollowed out foam ball, so it would have enough room to fit loosely over his nose with plenty of room to breathe.

We also added a toupee to look like the man's hair on the game. Phoenix’s surgeon outfit is a scrub shirt with a surgeon’s mask, and a surgeon’s cap on his head.

We also made the gameboard which Aladdin is lying on. The short table is covered with red and yellow posterboard. We cut out white letters to spell 'Operation' and glued them on the posterboard. We also made the tongs Phoenix is holding in his mouth using salad tongs with red felt glued onto them. They are attached to the gameboard with red string. The bone being pulled out is a rawhide dog bone.

It was a lot of fun making everything. Our friends who we give the calendars to haven’t seen it yet, but we hope they’ll be surprised when they see it this Christmas!