Greta Donut

The temperatures have dropped drastically in the past few days here in Atlanta, and poor naked Greta was freezing her little weimaheiney off at night. We like to keep the heat at 60ish at night to create a frosty bedroom, so the poor animals were freezing to death-more than I knew. After consulting with my sewing elders, I decided on this fleece design. Since Greta sleeps on the couch anyway, she just needed a barricade around the sides to hold in some body heat. So I cut a fleece blanket in half ($5), and sewed two 60" tubes out of it. Then stuffed the two tubes with three king sized washable pillows ($12) and cut ties in the fleece at each end of the tubes and tied them off, to create this triangular snuggle donut. $17 dollars total. Beats the $150 dollar Ginat dog beds at the store.

She found it within seconds and hasn't gotten up all night.

Amelia, the cat likes to try to cuddle, but Greta does not approve.

I think Amelia had a plan. But she did eventually get kicked out and was given the extra fleece blanket (purchased, but not used) and has been snuggled up inside since. THe poor animals were freezing to death it seems.

How to toilet train your cat!

Well, you can buy the Litter Kwitter system for $60

Which gives you the fancy removable rings that you take out one by one from the middle out, so that eventually you are left with just the toilet. Or you can rig it the $10 way, like I did, with a mixing bowl and a party tray. I am very non-commital when it comes to investing in cat waste, because, well, I have better things to invest in. Hense my $30 craigslist automatic cat litter box that retails for $130, which proves my point, because that thing was the biggest pain in the butt EVER. I would have been beside myself if I had actually spent that much on one. Anyway, this is the video I found.

Toilet train your cat

I went to walmart after sketching the rim of the toilet and found a mixing bowl that fit PERFECTLY. There is about a half and inch gap in the front of the toilet that I can cover. And then bought a plastic party tray for the platform to cut away. BTW this chick is trying to win an emmy for this performance I think. She is a bit ridiculous.

Chimney Swifts

Amongst all our packing, we noticed Amelia,the cat, paying particular attention to the fireplace (it already being bound shut with tape to prevent her opening the doors with her paws and climbing up after the chimney swift birds that live in the...well you get it). We untaped the doors to find that four baby birds had fallen out of the nest and lay chirping in the soot. And, having packed any flashlights we owned, I stuck my head and a candle in the fireplace to see that the flew was partially opened and there was one baby bird clinging for dear life to a piece of nest hanging from the flew. I grabbed him and his siblings, and my assistant, while simultaneously keeping the cat from devouring them, handed me a plastic bowl and a paper towel, and I made them a paper nest, Josh shoved it above the flew and closed it. Since then, we have heard an abundance of chirping. Even better, early this morning, I heard a lot of motherly fluttering and excited baby chirping. So we hope all is well.

baby bird and bits of nest

egg bits

I have since investigated the chimney swifts and learned that ideally I would have nailed the bowl to the side of the chimney (fat chance), because swifts carry twigs and cement them to the side of the chimney with their saliva. Their saliva glans work double time during the nest part of the year for this reason, and it was no wonder, then, to find that falling swift nests are a common occurance. Every website I came across had a falling nest story. I cant see how an ashy wall and bird spittle would make very good foundation for a home. The bits of nest I did find, however, were surprisingly concrete. The other thing I noticed was that the babies, though they couldn't have been more than a day or two old, were stuck tight to the small piece of nest they each took with them. They have feet designed to cling to the side of chimneys and trees, and special spiney tail feathers that poke out and help them hold on to the side of the chimney. And yet, I read their actual feet are so weak they don't walk. So i wasn't surprised to find Swifts are in the Apodidae (Swift Family), a name that means "no feet". SEE COOL PICTURES HERE.

Afternoon cuddle ritual

Is this ridiculous or what? Greta has to cuddle with Josh on the couch when he gets home every afternoon for about 30 minutes. Our poor children are going to have to be aggresive to get a spot on the couch when that day comes.

Snake Snacks

I think the lack of scale in this picture is very flattering for Clay-She looks like a mighty python!

The miniature equivalent to Python eats small deer-Garter snake eats large toad.

Frozen Apples-Great Summer Doggy Treat!

Just grab one out of the freezer after a hot day outside.

Apple portion should be relative to dog size!

Greta gets a whole one.

Wordless Wednesday

For the love of her squirrel

Kitty Hammock

I made this fabulous ninja kitty hammock for Amelia from leftover fleece scraps. I am always trying to come up with stuff to do with the scraps; I just hate to waste them. I just chopped it and tied it around the laundry basket, tight. Im not sure I would consider it a success or not, as you can see. I think she misunderstood...
However she has been in it for an hour or more, so maybe it was me that misunderstood.

Baby Harry is Back Home

Baby cub is safe and sound. Here's some pics I took of Baby Harry and Mom, Zassi while I was at work.

Dog Coat Finale

So, many layers later, the dog coat is complete, mostly. I ended up tweeking the pattern by adding about 6-7" to the belly section for reason of Greta's excessively barrel-like chest, but otherwise an easy pattern. I used Kwik Sew Pattern 3260-dog coat B. I liked it because it covered the belly as well as the back. The actual pattern is designed for a single piece of non-fraying heavyweight fabric. I, in reality, used four separate pieces of non-fraying material to adapt it to a heavy, snow, waterproof coat. I was trying to mimic the design I found on a website for heavy dog coats. I haven't attached the relector trim yet; I will probably add it to the collar in the end. I also ended up attaching a fleece strip with velcro underneath her chest, because the chest flaps kept bowing out when she moved, probably because the vinal is stiffer than the pattern meant for it to be. It worked great though. I recommend the pattern, I will probably end up making it as it is supposed to be made with the one piece of fabric for future sweaters for her.

Pre-Dog Coat

So, as it looks like we are officially headed to Syracuse in the fall, I took it upon myself to research heavy dog coats for my nearly naked weimaraner so she doesn't turn into a weimacicle when it drops below...well we won't talk about how low it will drop. So I found a camel colored vinyl material for the waterproof shell, and extra fleece layers for the inside, lined with another layer of olive-brown fleece. THe two fabrics on top are going to be attachable turtleneck pieces. Probably going to attach with velcro. The other picture is reflector trim, that's why its glowing. I'm not sure where I'm going to put it, but I thought it was cool. I will post later once my pattern arrives in the mail and I get started.