This is the other puzzle my sister introduced while she was visiting: a stuffed ball. She cut small strips of fleece, put a bit of kibble in each, and stuffed it into Missy the dog’s holey roller ball.
I’ve been alternating food puzzles at breakfast time. If I use just one, she isn’t motivated and doesn’t attempt it.
In May I received a mysterious fiber package. There was a tickle in the back of my brain, a shadow of a memory from the previous summer, when I talked with a woman who said her dog’s fur looked just like the Shetland sheep roving I was using for a spinning demonstration. She said she would send me some dog fur, and I gave her my address. I reached out to confirm, and yes! My mysterious package did contain the results of numerous brushings of her Samoyed dog, Sugar.
Samoyed dogs have a thick double coat that is usually white and naturally dirt repellant with very little smell. The fiber was very clean, and did not have much VM (vegetable matter), so I decided to comb and spin it straight from the bag, without washing or scouring. The staple length of the undercoat wool is about 2-3 inches, but the guard hairs can be much longer, I measured one guard hair at 9 inches long. I did not attempt to de-hair the wool.
The Samoyed wool was very easy to spin, and I was able to get a relatively consistent single. Combing produces more waste than carding, but the results are worth it. The waste fiber goes outside for the birds and squirrels as nesting material.
I chose to chain ply my singles to make a three ply yarn. The Samoyed wool also performed well in plying and I didn’t have any breakage.
I’m going to give the three ply yarn a gentle wash and hang it up to dry!
My sister recently visited and she had a great game for our anxious dog, Missy. She put treats in a hand towel, rolled it up, tied it in a knot and gave it to the dog. Missy loved it, figured out how to get the knot open and the towel unrolled to get to the food.
I’ve started to use the towel trick for Missy’s breakfast. The snuffling helps calm her in the morning, and the puzzle keeps her occupied for about four minutes. The small amount of food stimulates her appetite for the rest of her breakfast.
We have had a small dog cot for a number of years. Our small dog does not care for the cot, and so it has been under the large dog cot. I thought maybe the cats would like it, but the catio does not have any room on the ground. So I made it into a hanging shelf.
I should have thought of this years ago.
Thor the gray tabby still hasn’t figured out how to go back outside through the new cat door.
We made the decision to let our dog Griffin go on Monday night. I will start this story with the fact that I thought we were going to have to put him down almost two years ago. His osteoarthritis pain was beyond what Carprovet could cover and he was in a world of hurt. We tried Librela injections and his turn around was amazing. It was like he was five years old again. I was good about getting his injections done monthly, until this month. I was a week late and I thought his pain panting was because of it, and that his excessive water consumption was because of the panting. It wasn’t either. On Monday he had a stroke or something neurological happen and his head cocked and he lost control of his body. At that point it was obvious that the most humane thing to do was to ease his pain permanently. We stayed with him during the injections, both for peace for any part of him that was left, and for closure for us. He was a good boy. I’m glad we were given two extra years.
Critters and Craft 