Easy Alternative Dog Bed

Last week I talked about my dog and how my feelings towards him changed so much once Scoops arrived. This week I'd like to share a simple solution (I can't really call it a project) that I implemented to give him a cozy new bed and help me regain some sanity, and feel a little less resentful.

When we brought Opie home from the pound 13 months ago, we needed a makeshift bed for him. We weren't certain which dog we would be adopting, so we didn't buy a dog bed ahead of time. We brought out a huge (I'd guess about 5' x 7') old fleece blanket that my husband had grown up with (and, incidentally, that his one and only childhood dog had birthed her puppies on). Given it's age alone, the thing wasn't in great condition, but Opie didn't care. He ran up to meet it as we brought it towards him and wrapped him in it. He knew it was for him and snuggled right down into it. Great! Except that it was literally about 8 times bigger than a blanket should be for a roughly 10 pound chihuahua mix.

At first it was cute to see that little dog wrapped up in his ridiculously oversized blanket. But as Opie got more and more comfortable, and began "nesting" more and more in his bed, the blanket began to spread into our tiny space. I decided it wasn't a big deal, and just kept repositioning the blanket, swirling it back into a neat little nest several times a day. Opie would sometimes get up to walk away from his bed and accidentally drag the whole blanket with him. It often ended up parked right next to our front door, or in our kitchen. Eventually, the binding on the edges began to wear off, and Opie started getting his head through the sizeable rips and wearing the blanket like a cape. So regal. I figured that just wasn't safe, but "someone" still didn't want to get rid of his childhood blanket, so I just cut the torn bits of seam binding off. 

I also purchased a charming little fabric dog igloo, one that coordinated much better with our living room decor than did this big brown blankie with a tiger face on it (oh yes, one of those), for Opie shortly after he joined our family. Opie decided the igloo was a throne instead, and would mash the top of it down until he could sit on it, and then ultimately pushed it out of the way so he could just use the blankie. He really wasn't a fan of the igloo.

We ended up burying it under the blanket, and eventually tossed it out when it collected more hair and dander than I or the washing machine could remove, and it was obvious Opie was never going to use it as was intended.

After Scoops came home, and after the initial postpartum high had worn off (seriously, when we brought her home I was laughing about how filthy the house was - crazy hormones), I began to feel very annoyed with the gigantic blanket taking over my entire small downstairs. So we set out to find a nice, comfy, stylish pet bed for Opes MaGopes. After a little searching through HomeGoods, and much poo-pooing of the available pet beds there (they were all so ugly!), my husband discovered a charming little woven rush basket for about $8 in the home organization section. It looked like it was meant to hold magazines or papers, but we knew it would easily hold our dog. We took it home and put a thrifted fleece baby blanket in it, but it wasn't quite soft enough. My husband had some foam packaging lying around, so I wrapped that up in another thrifted baby blanket (or maybe it was the one we took home from the hospital, but I'll never tell), put the thicker fleece baby blanket on top, and BOOM. Opes was comfy. He loved it, and still does. I think he likes how small it is, because it feels cozier to him. I love it because his bed stays confined to his own little corner of the living room (mostly - he still drags the new blanket around like a cape sometimes) and the stylish little basket actually looks nice in my living room. 

Materials used: thrifted baby blanket, woven rush letter basket, and packing foam sheet.

"Oh where, oh where has my fave blankie gone?"

In the photo above you can see I've substituted an old bath towel (which I'm suddenly thinking I may keep on as the primary because I like the color better) in place of Opie's regular blankie while it's in the wash. As I wrote this post, I discovered a new colony of monstrous fleas on him and had to wash eh-ver-y-thing before I could finish writing. Good times!

So there you have it. We got creative with materials and used our resources to save money and find an aesthetically pleasing compromise. The dog is happy, I'm happy, and that means daddy is happy. Everybody wins. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go clean dog poop off the stairs again.