Some of life's happiest memories have four paws in them.
A birthday where they're waiting for cake crumbs. A road trip with their head out of the window. A festive morning with the whole house dressed up. A family photo where they're somehow the only one looking at the camera.
These little moments become the stories we cherish.
Our Story
I adopted Tutu and became insufferable about it almost immediately. Best food. Four kinds of treats. Three beds he ignored, and a scratching post he ignored harder. That phase lasted about a month.
Then I went looking for accessories. Walked into many pet shops and saw that the dogs get a whole wall. Cats get a shelf. Sometimes a box. Most of what I found looked like someone had cut a square of cloth and stapled a tag on it. And there were no bandanas for cats. Only bow ties and always with a bell on them.
So I took an old bedsheet, a needle and a reel of thread from my mother, and made one myself.
It was bad. The sizing was wrong, the finishing was worse, and I made the wrong call at nearly every step. The next one was better. Then I bought proper fabric. Then a small sewing machine. Somewhere in there, I quit my job.
Now a tailor in Pune does the stitching, and I still attach every snap by hand.
Tutu doesn't care which design he's wearing. He looks handsome in all of them.
Dressed for the occasion
Ganpati. Diwali. A birthday. Somebody's wedding. The whole house gets dressed up. The pets watch all of it from the sofa.
They may as well be dressed up too. They'll be in every photograph anyway.
How they're made
- Three snaps, not one. One snap gives you one size. Three gives you room. And room for the week they get fluffier.
- Anti-tarnish fittings. They don't go green after a monsoon walk.
- Reinforced corners. That's where things give first.
- Premium cotton, light enough for an Indian summer. Cut and stitched in Pune, in small batches. Every one arrives in a cotton pouch.
For the Little Moments
A café visit. A weekend away. Or just another Tuesday that deserves a photo.
It started with a cat. Turned out dogs wanted them too, so the sizes go up and nobody gets left out.
Because life is better when it's shared with the ones who greet us at the door, steal our spot on the couch, and somehow become family without ever saying a word.