Easy Puppy Bed for Under Five Bucks!

If anyone actually reads what I write, you will know about our little addition to the family, Chunk. For those of you who are here for the first time, Chunk is a 7 week-old Yorkie puppy who is insane. I wanted an alpha personality for our poor, possibly "special," Lab mix named Duke, who needs a little guidance. And when I say that he needs a little guidance, I mean he forgets to poop, drink and eat unless he sees other dogs doing it first. Sadly, this is not an exaggeration, but Duke is so adorable and well-behaved, most people don't notice what he lacks in intelligence.

FYI, that is his Halloween costume:  He is a ferocious lion.

So..., when I picked out Stefan's Christmas present (the puppy of my choice from the litter), I tried to pick out the one that acted most "alpha" of them all. This is how Chunk came along. An all-black puppy (at that time), with just a little white patch on his chest, even though he couldn't even see yet, he was already pushing his siblings out of the way to get to nurse. He was also the largest dog of the litter. In these ways, he is really living up to his name. I named him Chunk for the irony, and he is ruining my joke. I think I can forgive this face, though:

The problem with raising a puppy is the mess that is involved.  Chunk wants to destroy

many things; and by many things, I mean everything.  So when he started taking a liking to Stefan's favorite fleece blanket, I thought I had better give Chunk something of his own, so Daddy's stuff doesn't get peed on or chewed up by sharp little teeth.  I came up with this:

Materials:

fleece baby blanket (plaid patterns help to cut straight lines, fyi)

stuffing

scissors

scraps to distract puppy from attacking your work-in-progress (optional, but essential to retain sanity)

Dollar Tree sells fleece blankets and stuffing, so you can make this for 2 bucks!

first, lay out your blanket and see that it is probably not exactly square.  Fold the blanket in half one way, then unfold it and fold it in half the other way. Whichever fold gets you the most square result, do that.  I think I mean to say that you should fold the blanket in half width-wise, but I am seriously lacking sleep from a face-attacking puppy right now, so please bear with me. 

Cut the blanket in half on the fold.  Put the pieces back as they were before you cut them (as they were folded).  You should have two pieces, one on top of the other. 

Next, get your scissors and start cutting tabs all around, about one-inch wide and three inches long.  I have honed my skills obtained through many years of high-tech, post-secondary study to provide you with this computer-generated image to simulate your cutting experience:

Now that you have cut all the tabs and removed your corners, go around and tie each top tab to its matching bottom tab, using square knots (left over right, then right over left).  Tie three sides of the blanket and then stuff it.  You don't want it to be too full, but make sure it is pretty puffy as it will flatten out over time.  It is also easy to open this back up and remove or add stuffing as needed, so don't linger on this part for too long if you're not sure about stuffing. 

Finally, tie up the final tabs and watch your puppy come and start chewing on it immediately.  Eventually, you will see this and it will all be worth it:

P.S.  Notice Chunk's copper name tag?  You can buy these for a couple bucks each at Chris Fisher Art.

Enjoy!