This probably doesn't come as a surprise, but we love our dog, Dottie. I'll admit, we also pamper her too much: insulated dog house, hot-dog Halloween costume, frozen carrot treats in summer, puffy winter coat, dog-backpack, to name a few. We are those embarrassing dog-parents. Today, we took overindulging our dog about 300 steps further: we made her a sleeping bag. But, before I show a bunch of cute pictures, allow me to attempt to defend my sanity. Please.
We took Dottie backpacking in March two years ago for her first camping trip. In her pack, she carried her own food and water dish quite successfully. We thought she would be comfortable at night with a little fleece blanket inside the tent at our feet--after all, when I was a kid, our family dog always slept just outside the tent; it was generous of us to give her room inside! Shortly after we were settled in for the night, she started shaking violently from the cold. Nick took pity on her, and she ended up sharing his sleeping bag for the rest of the night. We knew we needed to figure something out for the next backpacking trip.
Following that trip, we went car camping several times with her in our big four-person tent. She did well with an old comforter wrapped tightly around her.
This past weekend, we went on a little one-night backpacking trip. Not wanting to replicate the experience of two years ago, I crammed an entire Snuggie into my pack for Dottie. Surely that would keep her warm enough: it could surround her twice and it was only supposed to reach a low of 55 degrees at night. It felt like overkill. But, it wasn't. It rained, and ended up being 45 degrees. Here's how it all went down during the night.
10:00 PM: Dottie is twice-wrapped in the Snuggie at the foot of Nick's sleeping bag in our light, tight, two-person tent.
1:00 AM: Dottie works her way out of the Snuggie and wedges herself between Nick and I. We try to ignore her.
1:10 AM: Dottie has her face resting on my neck, a paw on my shoulder, and her bottom in Nick's face and is shivering.
1:11 AM: Dottie spends the rest of the night between our shoulders, wrapped again in the Snuggie, and partially sharing Nick's sleeping bag. Nick and I each have roughly an inch of space between our faces and the sweating tent walls. (It is a downpour outside).
6:00 AM: Nick wakes up to find Dottie has almost completely taken over his sleeping bag. (See below).
6:20 AM: Nick gets out of the tent. Dottie stays in his sleeping bag. (See below).
6:35 AM: I get out of the tent. Dottie stays in this position for another hour. (See below).
Today I decided to make Dottie her own sleeping bag. I cut the top half off of my old bag, and sewed the bottom shut, to save on weight. Here she is in the final product (which looks pretty stupid). I think she loves it... and we just might like camping with her from now on!
