New Leash Design And More!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Sunday, Mom asked me to join her in her Studio.  She apparently had an idea for a new leash design and wanted to consult me on it.

"So, Mags ... what if I ..."
"Yeah, whatevs.  I've got my PICKLE!"

I mean really.  I don't get to play with my pickle very often.  I needed to concentrate!

Before I knew it, Mom had the new project all sewn up (ha - get it?) and she asked me to come outside for a test drive.  Check it out:

Me and my cool new leash!

It has a double strength handle, so it's cushioned a bit for Mom or Dad's wrist, then see those strong-boxes?  (The X looking things.)  Between every other one, there is an additional "hand hold" so Mom or Dad can shorten it up.  Here's the first one:

"Oooh!  Birdie!"

Or Mom can make it even shorter with the next one:

I was being very good here, but if Mom did need the extra control of a shorter leash, she'd have it.

I thought that was mighty slick right there, but wait!  There's more!  Mom ordered a heavy-duty walking belt!  She had consulted with a bunch of her friends who also have Siberians and she decided to go with a belt from the good folks at White Pine Outfitters.  They also recommended a climbing strength twist-lock carabiner, so she got us a couple of those, too!

Everything was here at Ao4 HQs by Monday, so Mom tested out a few things.  She could just loop the leash handle through a carabiner to fasten it or make a loop of the handle of the leash and hook the carabiner through that AND the leash handle.  Whatever.  Here's Cammie modeling that:

Cam, hooked up to the hands-free belt

Mom's not sure she really needs to do that.

That evening, Mom hooked both of us girls up and we went for a short walk!  Here we are, starting out:

"I'm not going to have to pull a sled or something, am I?"
"This is so AWESOME!"

Mom hasn't made Cammie a special leash yet, but will within the next couple of days.  She wanted to see how mine worked out first.

Dad came on the walk, too, so he could intervene if there were any problems.  He snapped this shot of us:

"Hey, wait.  Did I miss something?"
"Hurry up, Mags!"
"On by, Mags!"

We did GREAT, so Mom took us girls out alone this morning.  (Due to her torn rotator cuff and a slow healing process, she hasn't walked us without Dad in quite a while.)  In addition to the O-ring where our super-strength carabiner is hooked up to our leashes, there is a D-ring on each side.  Mom used one of our cute carabiners to hook up the little "bag holder bag" she made:

A look at the belt on Mom

Even less for Mom to carry!

Cam and I had TONS of fun on our walk!  Here's a shot of us heading up the last hill for home:

"What a FUN walk!"
"Amen, Cam!  A-MEN!"

Oh, right. I have no idea why my leash is shortened up to the shortest length. No idea whatsoever.  It's not like we kept jumping each other and Mom needed more control or anything.  And if it WAS like that, it would simply be because we were helping Mom test the system.  Yeah.  That's it!  Just helping test it out.

We love getting new walking gear - it will mean even MORE walks, which is a great thing!  We'll be sure to show you Cammie's new leash once Mom makes it!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher