Going to the dogs

We love dogs at le•top! Every season we have at least one group (or two or three…) that centers around dogs – but not too many people know that we have constant inspiration, right in our office!

I guess it all started oh…many, many years ago – when we got a puppy, who we named Piglet. She was technically a Christmas present for our younger daughter Melissa (who was around 5 at the time.)  Of course Piglet became part of the family – both at home and at le•top. She was so cute…but hated to be left alone. So after she chewed through numerous door casings and window sills while we were away at work, we just found it easier to bring her to the office and avoid the damage! She slept in a bed by my desk for 13 years, and knew all the people in the office who were a soft touch for a walk or a treat. Piglet has since passed from our life, but the tradition of having our four legged darlings underfoot has survived! On any given day we might have any one of our cast of doggy darlings underfoot. ‘Olive’, Karen’s very girly yellow lab (who thinks she is a lap dog) – ‘Krypton’, our head designer Pat’s super-smart assistance dog (who helps keep Pat’s diabetes under control) – ‘Cosmo’, Sylvia’s newly rescued puppy (shepherd and lab mix?) and a number of other characters in our daily doggy drama.

Today I was working on fine-tuning a shirt with a super cute screen print of a Labrador puppy – hmmm, looks like Olive when she was little! Here is a picture of Olive as a puppy, with my oldest grandson, at our office.  (They are both older now!)  I am not sure which toys were Olive’s and which were kid’s toys – but I think they shared!