You can dress him but you can’t take him anywhere.

I wasn’t going to go out last night until I got an email from Dogster informing me that it was time to get my animals together for the annual St. Patrick’s Day stroll and I needed to get my little animals in line before the big day.

I really, really wasn’t going to go out. I was more or less planning to put my pj’s on early and fall asleep in front of Law and Order but the carrot of exploiting my animals for my own ends was just too great to bear. So.

Out I went. I was going to go to Wal-Mart and buy my traditional yard of holiday themed fabric and then prop the animals up in front of it and have at. However, St. Patrick’s Day is not about the “being in front of the green” it is about “The wearing of the green. I discovered that “Wearing” is a lot harder to make the animals co-operate with.

Once I disregarded the fabric plan, didn’t go to Wal-Mart. I went to Poverty Barn because they always have a lot of cheap seasonal stuff and cheap seasonal stuff was what I was in the market for and I found it, lots of it. Most of it not really little animal appropriate though. Most of it was too big or looked suspiciously like re-purposed Mardi Gra stuff. I had no idea that green and white leis were considered appropriate St. Patrick’s Day attire. After much over thinking, I ended up with a package of two “Kiss Me! I’m Irish” garters. I thought they would work for either little animal.

While I was at Poverty Barn I looked around to see if there was anything else I needed. I was deeply disappointed with the selection of cheap things. I was there a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t see anything new that I wanted. They didn’t even have a good selection of Bunnies for me to angst over. I need a bunny by April 10 and it is never too soon to start over thinking and stressing about the wide variety of available stuffed rabbits. I need to see as many as possible so when I do find the perfect bunny I can have plenty of others to think I should have bought instead. Bunny buyer’s remorse is a toughie.

So after deciding that I really didn’t need my own fire pit and I talked myself out of the stand alone wall unit water feature ( I even have a place to put it!) and I was gone.

Lesson for the Day – You can Put a Garter on A Cat But You Can’t Make Him Stand Still For The Picture.

Seriously.

I thought that since he has been good for all previous pet-exploitation pictures I have taken of him that he was primed to be good for this one. He was not. The Kitty had real issues. He was okay with the garter, it wasn’t too tight but he did seem to have a problem with the cardboard widget stapled to it. I did learn that the garter isn’t going to fit Dogger at all, unless I use it as it was intended and I don’t think that would photograph well. I think Dogger would object even more strenuously than The Kitty if I put something on her leg and told her stand still. Dogger might just end up with a green shirt tied around her neck. It won’t be as cute as I was hoping but it’ll be easier than trying to convince her that she’s an Irish Setter.