Yesterday was March 1, which ostensibly means we are past the subzero temperatures, and since the dog needed a hair cut the other day, I told them to give him his "regular" cut rather than the longer cut I'd asked for the past two times. We figured he needed a bit more coat Dec-Feb, because this winter was been so awfully cold. But the weather has been balmier -- in the 20's and 30's, and (we thought) wouldn't get back down so low again.
Yesterday morning, I let the dog out -- it was exactly 0 degrees out (did I *mention* that it was March 1st?), and the dog came back inside doing that thing where he keeps holding one foot up and then the other, and then sucking on his frozen feet. Michael decided that we had to make some booties for our poor widdle puppy dawg, so I dragged the sewing machine and a yard of fleece upstairs to the kitchen, and he found some velcro cable ties, and we set to work. We tried three variations of fleece tubes: different lengths for the first two-- do we go past his ankle? up to his armpit? and then for the third one I tried a circular base with a tube around it (basically a cylinder), which wasn't much better. At that point, Michael surrendered, but I was just getting started. I understood how to make a sock to fit a human foot. I should be able to use that knowledge to construct a fleece bootie.
Michael thought I should just knit him some socks. "That's the next logical step," he said. He has previously told me not to knit *him* socks, because it was a waste of time when he could just buy some at Costco. But since I hadn't been able to find booties to fit Cotton at PetSmart, it made sense to Michael that I should make the dog some socks. We would put some non-skid goop on them later.
So Sunday afternoon, I knit our Shih Tzu socks.
What? You've never seen a dog wearing socks?
The front socks.
The back socks - an inch more ribbing than the front socks.
Oh, I also finished a human sock. (I've been working on Master Knitting stuff, too, but more about that on Wednesday)
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5 comments:
If he doesn't put up with the socks, I've had pretty good luck with Musher's Secret (it's a kind of wax you put on the pads of their feet and in between the toes to prevent snow/ice/salt irritating the skin- food safe also, so if they lick it off it's no big deal.)
It's kind of expensive, but we went from having a hard time walking the dogs at all when people had been out with the salt to having no trouble whatsoever, so it seems worth it. :) (People around me are very salt-crazy. One day my dad actually had to CARRY both dogs home from up the street, because there was so much of the stuff everywhere that they'd go one step, stop, hold up paw, one step, stop, etc. And one of our dogs is 70 lb!)
quiet1 on Ravelry. :)
Your socks are fabulous, but when it's cold and WET, you might want to try a pair of Muttlucks--silly pun, I know--they look like ski gear.
Ravelry VirgniaKnits
Oh, if it's cold enough for him to need socks (zero or below), we're not worried about the wet. At those subzero temps, we're worried about his foot pads freezing!
Love the Shih Tzu Socks. Sounds like when I had to knit Lenny Bo a sweater (also Shih Tzy)
Don't let Ravelers know about this, or Bob will have more bobby socks than he can shake a stick at! :)
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