Maine Pets

I have spent the last few weeks "'helping" my dogs shed out their fur outside on our deck.
The way I figure it, the more hair outside the house, the less hair inside.
We have brushed, used the soon to be reviewed Brush Buddy, combed, raked, and FURminated. Currently I have gathered three large shopping bags stuffed full of the dog's hair. Usually I scatter some fur for the birds, and throw the rest away, but this year after seeing the birds frequent the deck to pick fur out of the brushes, we filled an old broken birdhouse with dog hair, making the birds a store of sorts that they can come to, and shop for fur to line their nests.

So far I have filled the bird house 4 times and missed taking pictures of a total of four different kinds of birds coming to the "fur store". I stopped feeding the birds about a year ago because the squirrels drove our Collie Finney insane, but all the sweet hair gathering activity on my deck has nearly made up for the loss. The chickadees are really bold and will come when we are sitting within feet of them, but the American Gold Finches , and Sparrows are a bit more shy and have been hard to photograph.

When the flow of dog hair slows down, I plan to use the lint from the electric dryer to keep the "fur store" open.