Clever dog, patient cat! Wonder where the dog learned his fireman’s carry skills.
http://youtu.be/T8AOo0-xh0A
DIY: 3 Different Cooling Collars
The Pacific NW is about the only place in the U.S. right now that isn’t blisteringly hot. Not great for my tomato plants, but much easier on our pets. For those of you who are roasting, check out these 3 different tutorials for making cooling collars. Keep your pups comfortable and, most importantly, keep them safe!
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This first cooling collar is probably the simplest. It’s a long, fabric sausage (with water absorbing crystals inside) that you tie around your dog’s neck. If you have a bigger dog, you’ll need to make it longer. Once it’s finished, soak the collar in water and let evaporative cooling do it’s thing. The collar can be reused indefinitely. (While water absorbing crystals (polyacrylamide) is considered non-toxic, I still wouldn’t let my dog eat it. So use some common sense.)
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Cooling collar #2 is a collar in & of itself–it has a buckle–and is for a Lab-sized dog. It could easily be downsized for a smaller dog. This design uses either a strip of small ice packs or regular ice for cooling. I like that it has a buckle—seems more secure. This cooling collar is also reusable. (Like with anything, you want to make sure your dog isn’t able somehow chew on the collar or another dog’s cooling collar.)
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I think cooling collar #3 is my favorite design. It uses your dog’s own collar to secure it. It too uses a strip of small ice packs, but isn’t usable with ice. Make sure to loosen your dog’s regular collar before sliding on the cooling collar. Then place the cooling collar so the ice packs are next to you dog’s skin with her regular collar on top. This collar is reusable. (Again, make sure your pup isn’t chewing on her cooling collar or another dog’s cooling collar.)
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Friday Fun: Sugar Tree The Doberman & Pancake The Kitten
Sugar Tree is a sweetie! She has such nice play manners with that little toot, Pancake.
DIY: Distance Logging Via GPS Dog Collar
Dear Internet, I freakin’ love you! Through you I find fascinating people, learn cool things, and find neato-keen projects. This geeky, crafty, cool dog collar has all three things going for it. Yea!
Check out this nifty DIY dog collar project. You get to solder AND sew! Please note: This collar is not for finding your lost dog because the collar doesn’t have a transmitter. It is meant to track you & your dog’s progress & distance on walks. You can map your walks or if you have a large property you can see where your dog spends her time by downloading the GPS data from her collar at the end of the day.
Here are the supplies and tools you’ll need. Ladyada also has detailed information on the code & wiring used in the project. And there’s a pdf of all the tutorial. When you purchase from Adafruit Industries you help support open-source hardware.
The tutorial is by Limor Fried aka ladyada. Limor is an MIT educated electrical engineer and owner of Adafruit Industries, supplier of parts & designer of kits for DIY electronics projects. She’s an big advocate for open-source hardware.
Her user-name, ladyada, is a reference to Lady Ada Lovelace, a super cool woman in her own right. Ada Lovelace was a mathematician, writer & translator in the mid 1800’s. She’s widely attributed with writing the first “computer program”. Awesome stuff!
Pet Food Recall: AquaMax, LabDiet & Mazuri
This is a big recall—over 110 varieties of food from AquaMax, LabDiet, & Mazurie. Boo! Many of the varieties included won’t affect you, unless you literally have a zoo. But, buried in there are foods for fish, birds, guinea pigs, mice, reptiles, etc. I don’t want to list just the foods I think might affect you, in case there is one for exotic pets that I’m not as familiar with. So take a good look at the list!
The recall is due to elevated vitamin D levels which can harm or even kill animals and fish if fed for extended periods. Signs your pet has been effected are lack of interest in eating, weight loss and joint stiffness.
Please note this food was widely distributed.
- U.S. nationwide
- Bahamas
- Cambodia
- Canada
- Cayman Islands
- Chile
- China
- Curaçao
- Guam
- Japan
- Mexico
- Puerto Rico
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom