Keeping warm this winter

For those days when the weather acts like it is supposed to in the winter, and it is bitter cold out, Oli wears his sweater. It is complete coincidence that it just so happens to match my coat. I swear! Mom bought that sweater for our black lab Arthur after he had surgery. They had shaved his whole underside, and we were bringing him home on one of the coldest nights I can ever remember. It was windy and the temperature was around 3 degrees- that is cold, even for Pennsylvania. Well, he never really liked wearing the sweater, so it was tossed in a box with other doggie things and forgotten until Oliver came on the scene several years later. Mom dug through the boxes of Arthur's old things the night that Oliver arrived, just seven weeks old. Of course, it didn't fit him then, and it was August, but somehow the doggie sweater ended up in a box of Oliver stuff in my basement.

Flash forward two years, to this winter. Aside from freakishly warm weather, we have had several days of downright bitter cold. Oli didn't even want to go outside to do his business, and when we told him he had to, he would give us dirty looks, dash out, do what he needed to do, and run right back to the door. The neighbors probably think we neglect this poor dog, the way he looks when he is huddled up against the door, waiting to be let in.

So one day, after observing this behaviour, Lewis says, "that dog needs a sweater or something." And I remembered this thing being in that box in the basement. So I dashed down the stairs, calling Oli to follow me. He stiffly, but patiently, waited for me to put this contraption on him, first backwards, then misaligning the buttons, and fixing them. He gave me reproachful looks, but I sent him back upstairs to show his daddy.

We made a big fuss over him every time we put the sweater on him for the next couple of days, and pretty soon he accepted it. He realized it keeps him warmer when he is outside, so he can stay out and sniff his yard and bark at things like he usually does. Plus everyone makes over him, telling him how cute or handsome he is, and he just lapps up the attention.