Doggets

Ok, if it wasn’t clear before, let’s make it clear now. I love my dogs. These are the first pets that were truly MY pets. Our daughters had cats and rats and toads growing up, but these were the first animals in the house that imprinted to me. Growing up, my parents opposed the keeping of pets, and I was, of course,  the sort of child to bring home every broken winged bird, stray dog, or scruffy barn cat I could get my hands on. It took over 40 years, but an “oops” doggy pregnancy in my office was all the invitation I needed.   Albert and Victoria are litter-mates from a litter of four pups. Albert was the only long hair of the litter, and Victoria was the runt. They were billed as “mini” dachshunds, but Victoria is twice as big as their mother, and Albert is three times the size of his mini little wiener of a dad! They are a little over three years old at this point. They are silly, lazy, stubborn, and a little over protective of me. They do, however, make excellent sewing companions. Above is Victoria practicing her side eye. One of these days, I hope to have them fully housebroken! Of course, the dog people among you understand that it isn’t enough to love your own dogs. True dog people love all dogs! I can be brought to tears of happiness from animal rescue videos, and one of my happiest recent experiences was rescuing a young, injured duck at the beach. My younger daughter (the vegan animal rights warrior) and I have done a little volunteering at a great, no-kill shelter called Hope For Life. I thought it might be fun to develop a project to benefit the shelter and, more directly, the pets themselves. This was the kernel of the idea behind Creature Comfort Quilts. I’ve made a few doggy quilts, and plan to make more. I donated some to Hope for Life to benefit their animals. If you think your pup might like one for him or herself, I’m open to the idea of selling them, with the proceeds going to animal rescue. They are a soft flannel, and can be made with the bone, doggie, or paws pattern. I have done one with all over dense quilting like a regular quilt, overlaid with a doggie appliqué. I used polyester batting, thinking that would be easier to clean, quicker to dry in the dryer. I am going to try some with cotton batting to see if I like the less “puffy” look, as aesthetically I do not find the fluffy look as pleasing. They are fun and quick projects. And it turns out FMQ bones is both fun and easy! I picked up a large selection of the animal print flannels one day when they were 60% off. So I have quite a stash to work with now!

Here is a photo with Pauline from Hope for Life rescue when I went in to bring the first batch of quilts. More are on their way! They are a great rescue organization with an open layout to keep the animals socialized as as “home-like” as possible, until they find their “fur-ever” homes! They are highly successful at matching up pups and kitties with compatible, wonderful homes. Here is a shout out to them and all rescuers!

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