(54) For Felt and Friends

Brad has many students that work for him. One of the students is a Masters of Fine Arts major from Japan. Once when Brad was showing someone some pictures of Max, this MFA student happened by and asked him if she heard correct that he had a dog and what kind of dog he had. Being the proud dog owner that Brad is he told her all about Max and Beeker. She asked him if he could bring her some of Max’s hair because she was working on a project in which she was making FELT out of dog hair. The problem was that the dog hair that she had gotten from friends’ dogs was from labs and other short haired dogs and it wasn’t long enough or soft enough. She said that she and members of her class had been buying it (dog hair) online and it too was too short to make felt. She asked if Brad would bring some of Max’s hair to her and she told him that she would return what hair she didn’t use (honest!). So, last week Brad took a grocery store bag of Max’s hair to work for this student. If you know how much a Newfie sheds you wouldn’t be surprised that in one brushing a whole grocery bag of hair could be collected. Fact is sometimes Max is so matted or blowing a coat so two or more bags are filled in one sitting. Brad reported today that the student told her supervisor that she had taken the hair to class and the entire class decided that Max’s hair was the best of all the hair collected for this project and wanted to know if Brad could bring in more hair. I guess this might be a new line of work for Maxie. He could be employed to be brushed routinely (he is) and sell it on line. What do you think we could sell it for? I told Brad to find out how much the students were paying. I think that is a hoot. I had Brad pass along that we want to buy some of the felt that was made from Max’s hair. I think I will frame it. I bet he would be the only Newfoundland that has felt made out of his hair.
We worked in the yard again this afternoon and Beeks stayed in our yard the whole time. He would run off and do his doggy business, I called him frequently and he returned each time I called him. When our neighbors called Beeks to come into their yard, I watched as Beeks approached them then ran back to our side and looked at me. He did this a couple of times and I gave the verbal “OK” but he wouldn’t go for the first two or three times they called him until I started to walk over and then he went. I was so pleased that he didn’t go until he got my permission. The other exciting thing that happened today was that our neighbor that has been helping Max with his Meet and Greet lessons came over and felt comfortable enough to walk right up to him and pet him. He did beautiful. He let her pet him and scratch his tummy. I think she was as happy about it as I was. They are buddies now. Max didn’t bark at the little girls running up and riding their scooters around in front of him. Max is still too focused on them when they are around. His heart pounds quicker and he really focuses all attention on what they are doing. We have come such a long way since we brought him home from the rescue and each day we see more positive change for Max. Brad was not around so this is even more impressive because it means that he did great even without the pressure of Brad’s presence. This means that he is more apt to behave with Brad around because he wants so badly to please Brad. Max stayed outside a long time this afternoon and when Brad came home from work we all wnet on our figure eight walk. We haven't walked with the dogs for a number of days so it felt good for all of us. Then we came back to dinner and another project. It sure felt good to finally sit down to write this blog.