I must say, my pets are very good sports about my love of crafting and DIY projects. I have a dog we originally named “Scooby,” but we changed his name when our young daughter –- who was just a toddler then — kept calling him “Cooby.” He’s an American Foxhound, and he simply would not respond to anyone but her, so his new name stuck.

In the winter Cooby wears a multi-colored sweater that my daughter and I knitted for him, and he has happily worn countless –- and utterly silly — Halloween costumes we created for him over the years. Cooby is also wonderful with our two cats, Cassidy and Sugaree, and he has yet to catch our bird, Viola Lee, though he has tried on many occasions.

Viola Lee sleeps in a birdhouse we made by hand and painted to reflect her colorful plumage, and Cooby, Cassidy and Sugaree all have homemade beds that we made out of the blankets they most frequently slept on before we repurposed them as beds. A dog, two cats and a bird is a lot to handle sometimes, but they are entertaining and we love them all a great deal.