Spam problems

I've started to get spam comments on a daily basis, and I'm too tired to delete them manually. For now on, there will be word verification. Let's see if that helps with the problem. I'm really sorry that I have to do this, because it makes commenting more difficult. And I hate the word verification system myself, but Blogger doesn't offer many tools to solve this problem.

But hey, here's a cute video of Papu. I left a digital camera to record what she does while I'm away... and Papu didn't seem to like the idea.

Papu's new winter coat

Papu has a very thin fur, so if it gets really cold, she definitely needs a winter coat. And it can get really cold quite often, because we live in Finland. You know, we have polar bears and penguins and other stuff here. But dog coats are expensive here. Like ridiculously expensive: I saw one nice that I liked, but it cost 60€ in Papu's size. That's almost more than I'm willing to pay for my own coat! Though we never planned to buy an dog coat in the first place. We wanted to make one by ourself.

And for this project we needed material. And since fabrics can be quite expensive too, we decided to be environmental and recycle an old coat. We went to a flea market with this project in mind, and we find this nice coat:


The "before" picture.

The coat cost 2€ (that's like 3 US dollars), which is already a lot cheaper than 60€. The fabric was in good condition and it had a nice silvery lining. Not to mention the fake fur and some small details we definitely wanted to keep. We had a pattern for a dog coat, but it was made for a pug so we had to modify it.


The buckle in the back was the first detail we wanted to keep.


The coat looked less warm after I cut out all the pieces.


Only three pieces and the original fur collar.


Things sewn together.


Velcro is handy. No buttons for this coat.


We wanted to keep the original label too.


Opening for the harness. Made like a button hole.

I'm quite pleased with the coat. It wasn't the easiest to sew and sometimes I had to ask my mother to help me. She's good at sewing. And it took the whole Saturday to make the coat, but I think it was worth it. It doesn't fit perfectly, but I blame those stupid fat pugs. I didn't realize that the bottom part should have been adjusted too. We tried it on, but it looked OK until it was already sewn. Though it doesn't matter so much, because Papu seemed to be comfortable in it. I actually expected her to fight against the coat, but she was perfectly OK with it from the first moment. She didn't even mind the fur collar.


She looks so proud in her new coat.

I would like to make another dog coat in the future, one that fits her perfectly. I also think that Papu might need a rain coat, because she hates the rain so much. I would also like to get a sewing machine of my own one day. I'm not (yet) into sewing clothes, but I would like to sew smaller things and make adjustments and customizations. All that cool stuff.

Papu's Piggy Treats

We are going to Viiala for the weekend, so we decided to bake some doggie treats for my mother's dachshund. Papu has eaten almost all the treats I baked her last time. I thought they were too hard, but after all they weren't. They were just hard to crack into pieces. I bought a smaller cookie cutter so the size shouldn't be a problem anymore. J.R. also rolled the dough thinner this time, so they should be easier to crack too. And now it seems that we have a perfect, simple doggie treat recipe, so why not to share it with you? Here it is:

Papu's Piggy Treats

Makes 25-30 small treats

List of ingredients:

• 30 grams of minced meat (that's not much)
• 1 tbsp of vegetative oil (quite optional if the minced meat is not low-fat)
  
• 0,5 dl of consommé (about 0,2 US cups)
  
• 1,75 dl of wheat flour (about 0,7 US cups)
• 0,75 dl of cooked rice (or barley or a mix of both) (about 0,3 US cups)
• 1 tsp of oregano

Doggie treats before baking.

Making:

1. Fry the minced meat.
2. Use a hand blender or similar to chop and mix the minced meat and consommé.
   
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Add the flour little by little until you think it makes a nice dough.
   
4. Roll the dough (0,5cm thick is OK) and cut the cookies.
5. Bake in 170°C (338°F) for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes turn off the oven, open it a little and let the cookies dry in the after heat.

If preserved in an airtight jar or similar, the cookies should stay good for months.


Doggie treats after baking. They still look the same, no surprises here.

They don't look so yummy to me, but Papu is crazy for them. Maybe she knows that we have baked them with love. They don't really smell that much, and I'm not sure if they taste so wonderful either, because I have not tasted them by myself (though I could, they're not poisonous).


She wants it. She wants it really bad.


Outside the picture Papu's tail is wagging like crazy.


FINALLY!

After these two experiences with DIY doggie treats, I'm very positive that I will bake them in the future too. Like why not? Papu loves them more than she loves her commercial doggie biscuits, they're cheap and very, very easy to do. Just make some Chili con Carne or any other food with minced meat and rice and take some aside and bake the biscuits later. So ridiculously effortless!