Alex Off The Chain

Instead of a a Friday Fun video, I’m sharing a remarkable video of a dog being freed from being chained to a fence for his entire life.

The guy rescuing Alex is Steve Markwell, founder and executive director of Olympic Animal Sanctuary.  Olympic Animal Sanctuary is a unique organization that takes dogs who have been deemed dangerous, that won’t be accepted by any animal shelters, and/or that are going to be destroyed because of behavior.  Steve is giving these dogs a home for the rest of their life and working on their fears & reactivity to make that life as good as possible. (note: Steve is also my cousin)

Please don’t chain your dog and do something about dogs you see that are chained—contact animal control, animal welfare groups, or anti-chaining groups.  Support legislation banning the chaining or tethering of dogs.

DIY: 2 Valentine’s Dog Sweaters

Today I have patterns for two different Valentine’s Day sweaters you can knit for your pup or a friend’s.  If you have a larger or smaller dog than these patterns will work for, check out this dog sweater calculator to resize them.  You can also use any pattern for a larger or smaller sweater and just add the designs to your own pattern.

I.  The hearts & bones sweater has a cute motif and has knitted straps to keep the sweater in place.

II.  This sweater has a heart with a bone shot through it and some crocheted trim.  (for more patterns by this designer for purchase, check out Kay’s shop on etsy MySavannahCottage)

Dogs Have Built-In Mukluks

Cool! (ha!)  It turns out we don’t need to worry so much about our dogs’ feet getting too cold.  Researchers have learned that dogs’ feet are specially adapted for cold weather and are similar to penguin wings, dolphin fins, & arctic foxes.  The vascular network draws cold blood from the surface of the pads and also rewarms the blood before it continues into the dogs’ core because the veins (carrying cold blood) are running right next too arteries (carrying warm blood) which rewarms the blood in the veins. (thanks Margaret!)

Just because they can withstand extreme cold though, doesn’t mean your dog wants to.  And you do need to protect them from other things that might harm their feet like de-icers, etc.