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My fur child

My Fur Child’s Worthy Cause

By Sarah Hinnenkamp

My fur child

Printed June 2 as a weekly column submission.

I surprised myself when I adopted a dog that sheds his body weight in fur. He changed the way I clean, changed the way I shop and forced me to relax my obsessive compulsiveness over keeping things in perfect order.

Since I adopted Maple, a Shiba Inu/Eskimo Husky cross, three years ago, I think twice about wearing black, I’ve considered buying stock in companies that make pet hair rollers and the color of Maple’s fur is a deciding factor in all furniture purchases. His red color and fluffy tail make him adorable – his fur makes him high maintenance.

Before I had the proper brushes and a pet hair vacuum, I felt overwhelmed. I went online to see if I could profit from his shedding. Turns out it’s illegal to sell dog fur in many states. Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t want to see his fur on the runway at New York Fashion Week. I recently saw photos on Facebook of mittens created out of one’s dog fur and it made my skin itch.

I became content having birds use his fur to build their nests.

A few weeks ago, I got my hopes up as I stumbled upon a story about how to put Maple’s fur to good use. The story got buzz around the country: many groomers and stylists collected pet fur and human hair to help with the oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico coastline. San Francisco-based nonprofit Matter of Trust collected the hair and said it would be used to create oil absorbing booms and mats.

The discovery made my head spin. Finally Maple’s massive amounts of fur and my overwhelming need to vacuum before guests arrive would all be for something. He could put his unneeded hair to good use. I always knew my fur child would give back.

My excitement was short-lived.

Last week the Associated Press reported that hair, pet fur and fleece filled 19 warehouses in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. BP and the U.S. Coast Guard said they are not using the hair to sop up the oil and don’t plan to do so.

Matter of Trust posted on its website that they are on “stand by” with BP after BP officials said there had been a misunderstanding.

So Maple and I are on stand by. Each day when we go outside and I remove enough fur to fill a gallon Ziploc bag, we give it to the wind instead of saving it for the warehouses full of hair.

Maple’s “spa time” relaxes him and for now, his fur will continue to be for the birds.

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Comments

  1. Mary Ann Houston says

    June 4, 2010 at 1:52 pm

    Enter your comments here…Sarah, I know what you’re saying. Daisy, a border-collie cross, that I had for 14 years; I just had to let her go to Heaven to be with Rick last September. One of her favoriter tricks was to sashay up to me on Sunday mornings right when I was ready to go to church. You can’t wear dark colors, and just the thought of fleece makes me shudder. I swear the fur goes into hiding while the lint roller goes over the fleece, and as soon as you go somewhere, it starts reappearring. I still have a YellowLab/Golden Retriever who does a fair amount of shedding, but my little Shih-tzu/Maltese buddy, Dixon, does not shed. I used to tell Daisy she was lucky she was so cute because she was getting away with alot. Besides the shedding, she was a naughty girl for all her 14 years, and I miss her.

  2. Mary Ann Houston says

    June 4, 2010 at 10:32 pm

    Enter your comments here…Maple sure is cute. I love how they look at you with those loving, trusting eyes. i was gone on vacation for 10 days, and I could hardly stand the thought of leaving my babies. i had to introduce myself to all the dogs I saw in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland to make up for missing my own. I have a sickness.

  3. Amanda says

    June 9, 2010 at 1:47 pm

    We were all signed up for both dogs to be groomed to donate their fur too – until we heard word that it was just sitting in storage. How sad.

    You might be surprised by dog mittens. I should show you my dog fur scarf sometime – I save up dog fur for my mom who spins and knits it. :)

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