Poor puppy had to get her three month puppy shots (she is now 6.8 pounds, by the way), and wasn’t feeling good. She was shivering, so I bundled her up in my lap with a fuzzy blanket. Izzy the cat, who has been slowly reclaiming the house, saw the cue for nap time and joined us. I was shocked! Missy was too tired to show but mild interest before she fell asleep again. Here is the photo progression.
Missy ate well and by the next day was back to her rambunctious self!
The DNA panel on Missy, our 11-month-old pup, showed an eighth basically unknown. The listed possibilities included terrier, sporting, companion, herding (isn’t that just about all of them?). I am building evidence to support my theory that the last eighth is feline. (To recap, she is half cattle dog, quarter mini poodle, eighth bichon frise.)
Now I’m not sure any self respecting cat would put up with canine romantic attentions, even three generations back, so maybe in her last life she was feline. Or maybe she just identifies as feline in this life. Cats are pretty cool. Everybody wants to be a cat.
My sister told me about turning one of our existing dog toys into a toy that satisfies the destuff desire in dogs. The bucky ball looking rubber toy is easy to stuff with strips of fleece or terry cloth fabric.
I started with strips of fleece, and knotted two together to give a little resistance to the pull. My older dog thought this was great and liked pulling the strips out of the ball. The young one liked running around with the freed strips.
Then, it turned out, I needed all the fleece for the snuffle mat, so I cut up an old towel into strips and stuffed those into the ball. The terry cloth is a little harder to pull out, but they try!
This is another toy that we monitor closely for loose threads and chewed off bits.
Since little miss snuffle-for-snacks likes to, well, snuffle, I decided to make her a snuffle mat. I looked at some online tutorials, consulted my sister who has made one, and purchased two yards of fleece fabric and an anti-fatigue mat.
One of the things I didn’t see in the tutorials I read was that the direction the fleece strips are cut matters. If you cut strips in the direction of the greatest stretch, the strip will curl up when you pull on it. If you cut it perpendicular to the direction of the greatest stretch, the strips will not curl. I chose the no curl method.
I used unconventional measurements for the fleece strips; the length of my thumb to the first joint (about 1.25”) for the width, and the width of my outstretched hand (about 7.75”) for the length, mainly because I couldn’t find a ruler (I know I have at least 15 in the house, where do they all go?). I read articles recommending double knotting the strips in the mat, and some saying a single knot is enough. I tend toward the double knotted club, but Missy “helped” me test the single knot on the first strip, and it held just fine.
I was able to start knotting the strips while Missy slept, but each time she woke, I had to take a break because she was obsessed with the mat! Since I couldn’t knot, I took the four selvedges I cut off and made a four strand round braid with knotted ends: she likes it.
My cat Izzy also delayed knotting by deciding it was time for a nap on my lap. On the mat.
Because I wasn’t sure how much fabric I would need, I cut the long strips, but didn’t cut short strips until I was ready to tie. I figured that if I had left over fabric, I could make more pull toys. Missy thought the fabric strip pile by my chair was exciting too.
After a couple of days tying in fits and starts, I hear my eldest yell “She just peed on the rug!” Yup. On the unfinished hand-tied snuffle mat. I had left it beside my chair, and while potty training is progressing, she is obviously not at 100%. It was time to wash the rug!
This actually worked out OK. I realized that if I made it much bigger it wouldn’t fit in the washer. I cut off the rubber mat so that finished (and unfinished) mat would fit in the washer. I washed it in deep water with a vinegar presoak (I put the vinegar in the bleach dispenser) and an extra rinse. I dried it on low, which worked well.
After the mat dried, I tied on the remaining strips. I started with four per large hole, but felt it was thin, so added a couple to each small hole. Because my mat has small holes and large holes, I could have done more, but I didn’t have enough fleece! As it was, I used up all two yards on a 16 inch by 16 inch mat. Missy likes it! But it only goes on the floor strictly supervised.
Yup. I couldn’t get pictures without the puppy. She makes the pictures cuter anyway.
Little miss is now big enough to jump up one stair. Luckily I had purchased a gate earlier that day, so installed it three steps up. We did this with our kids too; let them learn to climb up and down a few steps, then open the staircase when they’ve gained some skills. If the gate is at the bottom of the stairs, they don’t get any practice.
Critters and Craft 