Saving For A Rainy Day

As a general rule, I don’t do dog apparel. Especially not for German shepherds. And just to clarify, I don’t consider the worn-once-a-year-for-ten-minutes birthday hat or Christmas kerchief to be dog apparel. I’m talking about actual clothes for dogs. Two weeks ago, though, I broke my own rule. Reyna’s rehab is very important to me, and I don’t want the weather to get in the way. While Reyna may not care if she gets soaking wet in the rain, and I don’t really care if I get soaking wet, I do care about the potential problems of putting a soaking wet dog in a crate and leaving for several hours. You may not realize this, but Reyna is darn near impossible to dry off with a towel. Or even several towels. You think she’s dry, but then she shakes (or spins), and suddenly she’s soaking wet again. That undercoat of hers is useful for many things, including storing large amounts of water. So, to cut down on the amount of wet dog going into a crate after a morning walk in the rain, I decided to buy Reyna a rain coat. Yes, I said it. A rain coat. I found an inexpensive one online, ordered it based on the manufacturer’s specifications, and got it early last week. The neck and girth fit just fine, but it was six inches too short on her back. I called the company I bought it from, spoke to a very nice lady in customer service, and had her measure the length of the next size up. In between me returning the too-short coat and her shipping the new coat, of course, we had those lovely torrential downpours. Reyna’s new coat arrived yesterday afternoon. It’s a bit big around the girth, but I can fix that. The important thing is that its long enough. It also has elastic straps that you’re supposed to slide the rear legs through – they keep the coat from sliding side to side – but I haven’t decided yet if we’ll actually use those. They pull the coat back just far enough to keep it from covering as much of her neck as I’d like. And no, I did not order a coat for Duncan. I don’t think you could put anything on him that would convince him that he wouldn’t actually melt from taking a walk in the rain.



But if you think its wrong for a dog to wear that rain coat, as simple as it is, just remember, I could have gone with something like this: