It's Only Fur

Had an interesting conversation today while sitting outside our local cafe with a man who was amazed that our three dogs were sitting there, all with jackets on. Jack, our old boy was wrapped up in his Ice-Barker, Goose the Vizsla Pup was sporting his Puff-Doggy, and the Dutchess was in her one of a kind black Arma-Doggo (she is a couture kind of girl).

This gentleman, let's call him Bob was dressed head to foot in warm and wet weather gear - a sensible choice given it is both cold and wet in Wanaka today. It is pouring with rain and about 4 degrees (C). Bob looked like a smart guy, but then he opened his mouth and proceeded to comment how ridiculous it was that dogs were wearing jackets. Once I got over the shock of being called ridiculous by a perfect stranger (usually people don't say that kind of thing to me until they know me much better) I pulled myself up to my full 4ft11 and 3/4 and enquired how so. His response - they have fur. Duh.

Resisting the urge to ask Bob if he had any body hair of his own (which I am pretty sure he did) and if so then why he had bothered to put on clothes, I smiled.

Ever since we started D-fa Dogs there is have been those that think we're crazy. The conversations usually go something like this:
"Oh, you make jackets for dogs (awkward smile), how cute, like the little Paris Hilton ones with diamonds on them?"
"No" I reply. "We make real gear, technical gear, for dogs out in the outdoors. Just like you wear, but for dogs." (cue confusion).
"But they have fur!" 

Humans have such remarkable powers of observation, yes they have fur,  but humans for all our frontal lobes sometimes lack a bit of common-sense. Surely if fur was that great, we'd all be wearing it, always, for everything. But we don't, because it's not that good at keeping you comfortable in a human world.

While it might appear that we 'just' make jackets for dogs, I don't feel that way at all. To my mind we do much more. We keep the cold from our old dog's bones, we keep our young dogs visible as they bound around the hills, we warm working and hunting dogs between jobs, we keep dogs afloat in water they didn't ask to be in and we make sure that the unconditional love dogs have for us can endure whatever human conditions we decide to expose them to. Now with the launch of HeliDog, our rescue harness, I'd like to think that we also protect the dogs that do the hard yards in the mountains as they are winched from helicopters and riding on skidoos.

So, hairy Bob, yes they do have fur but that's just window dressing. Beneath that fur is flesh and blood and heart. Fur doesn't make our dogs invincible. It just makes them hairy.

But I will agree with Bob about one thing. Fur or fluff, scruffy or smooth, and all fur aside dogs are superhuman. Jack's superpower is now the ability to sleep through everything and Annie's the ability to hear an apple being sliced from over 1km. Goose is only 13 weeks old so his superpowers are pretty underdeveloped so far (as is his fur), but pooping his bodyweight and wriggling appear to be early contenders for his special skill set.

Right now the three of them are sleeping, naked, by the fire while their jackets are hanging in the laundry to dry ... and if that's crazy then so be it, I wouldn't have it any other way.