Halloween is upon us, which means it’s time to start thinking about your costume, and your pet’s! If your pet is like ours, and won’t tolerate being dressed in a ridiculous costume (lobster kitty, anyone?), it doesn’t mean your pet can’t celebrate too! Check out our new Halloween-inspired collar designs, perfect for the picky pet who still likes to be festive.

We’ve got plenty of skull and crossbones collars (plus a new lime green skulls collar that you’re sure to love!), lots of orange and black polka dots and stripes, stylish new orange and white pawprints, and even some orange and black tiger stripes.

We’ve got you covered when it comes to Halloween collars!

Thanks to everyone who came out to see us at Nashville’s Dog Days festival! While it threatened to pour a few times, it thankfully only drizzled, and we really lucked out with a cool and beautiful day! Perfect weather to spend a day outside with your dog.

We were trying out a new collar display this time, which worked beautifully. I think we’ll stick with this setup for a while.

More collars on the display meant more space on the table. And we filled that space with some adorable puppy photos taken by the talented kern-photo (you’ve seen their work on the front page of our site in recent months). Talented folks, they are!

When the sun came out and things started to warm up, a few smart puppies took refuge under our table. This one included. She just crawled under there while her foster mom was browsing the collars, and took a nap. What a cutie. And up for adoption. Tempting. Oh so tempting. I wonder what Kitty has to say about that…

Needless to say, we brought a lot of collars. Including some brand new designs that aren’t even on the site yet (but they will be soon!). Some of the new styles went over quite well, and we think that you’ll enjoy them too.

Thanks to everyone at the Nashville Humane Association for putting on such a fabulous event every year. We’ll definitely be back for more next year!

If you live in or around the Nashville area, be sure to stop by the Dog Days festival this Saturday, September 20th. We’ll be there with plenty of collars in tow. Not only that but the event will be filled with fun activities for you and the pooch, such as contests, a doggie fun zone, doggie spa, live music, microchip clinic, paws parade, and plenty of tasty treats and fabulous vendors to go around.

When: Saturday, September 20th, 2008, 10am to 4pm
Where: Centennial Park, Nashville, TN (map)
Cost: $5 to enter, Children under 5 FREE & Mutt Strutt Participants FREE
For more information visit the Nashville Humane Society.

As a special treat, if you do plan on stopping by, print out this handy dandy coupon and bring it with you. Enjoy 20% off of your purchase on Saturday, on us! (Coupon only valid in person at Dog Days).

How will you find us? Well just look for the two crazy people surrounded by collars and wearing these fashionable garments:

Are you loving this weekly feature as much as I am? I love seeing the adorable photos of your pets and hearing about their crazy antics! Want to see your pet featured here? Fill out the survey located at the bottom of this post.

You might recognize this face, as this week’s featured pet is a regular here at Pattern & Paw. He’s one of our favorite models, and sure knows how to work the camera. Get to know the dog behind the good looks… the ever popular, world-famous, Dash!

(psst! Be sure to check out Dash’s mom and dad and their wonderful photography on their blog, kern-photo.com/blog!)

Name: Dashboard Kern, aka “Dash”
Nick-Names: Bonehead, gomer, meatface, baby dog, meatball, basically anything but dash!!
DOB: January 4, 2006
Location: Lakewood, Colorado
Favorite Food: cheddar cheese — can smell this stuff a mile away!!
Favorite Toy: his wabbit — a stuffed bunny that his mom and dad made for him at build-a-bear
Favorite Nap Spot: his mom and dad’s bed, the living room chair, or at the right time of day, right on top of a spot of sunshine on the carpet
I love… when my mommy and daddy come home, my wabbit and bear, cheese, belly scratches, runs with my dad, swimming!!, chewing on sticks, and meeting new people
I hate… having my photo taken–which is why I am howling in my photo, getting my ears cleaned and toenails clipped
Special Skills: enough self-control to not eat a yummy piece of food on my paw until he gets the “okay.” He won’t even move an inch if we say, “otay, or, oh darn, or oh boy!”
Super-Power(s): the power to cure anyone’s bad mood by rubbing his velvety ears on their face.
Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice: his striped forest big dog collar. he looks very handsome in it!
Anything else special about your pet? Quips, stories, etc.? Dash has been known to dabble a bit in modeling, especially for a high-end, boutique, dog collar company, which will remain nameless… and Dash is also named after Dash, the boy from the Disney Pixar movie “The Incredibles.” It is a very fitting name when you see him in an all out sprint chasing his ball.

P&P Stylist Says…
We love dash. Such a stunning dog deserves an equally stunning collar. We know he has a large collection, but if he had to have a new one, we think the Teal Mod Dots Big Dog Collar would look simply smashing against his copper coat. Or if he feels like showing off his rebel nature, the Blue Flames Big Dog Collar would bring out his wild side. For something a bit more sophisticated, the subdued Moss Green Striped Big Dog Collar would be a natural choice. Dashing indeed!

Want your pet to be featured as the Pattern & Paw Pet of the Week? Just have your pet complete the questionnaire below, and email it to us at petoftheweek @ patternandpaw . com (take out the spaces). Send us some cute photos of your fuzzy friend as well, bonus points if the photos include a stylish Pattern & Paw collar!

Name:
Nick-Names:
DOB:
Location:
Favorite Food:
Favorite Toy:
Favorite Nap Spot:
I love…
I hate…
Special Skills:
Super-Power(s): Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice:
Anything else special about your pet? Quips, stories, etc.?

Each week we’ll choose one special pet and feature him or her here, on our blog. Not only that, but the chosen pet will receive a special gift from Kalypso herself!

It’s time for another installment of our brand new feature here on the Pattern & Paw blog: Pet of the Week!

This week, we are featuring a duo of darling felines… Stoli and Luxor! You may have seen Stoli before… he happened to win honorable mention in both of our past pet photo contests.

Name: Stolichnaya (AKA Stoli)
Nick-Names: Baby
DOB: February 2nd, 2006
Location: Gas, Kansas (now residing in Westbrook, Maine)
Favorite Food: I go crazy over bread, specifically buttered toast. I have a special affinity for cheez-its, and any REAL kitty food smothered in gravy that won’t taint my delicate palette.
Favorite Toy: No one better touch my furry mouse, actually it is half a mouse because Luxor (my brother) chewed off its behind.
Favorite Nap Spot: Any where where Luxor isn’t - preferably in the cabinet above the stove.
I love… butt rubs, kisses from mommy, my fashionable collars from Pattern and Paw, playing fetch with my mouse or some socks, clothes washed in bleach. Oh and I’ll explore the realm of the dishwasher when given the opportunity.
I hate… when Luxor chews my ear, or my collar. Luxor was traumatized as a kitten by a collar getting caught on his jaw. So now he thinks it’s necessary to free me from mine. I hate the sound of tin foil crinkling and I hate it when people come over to my house to visit my humans.
Special Skills: using ‘The Force’ to open cabinet doors. I used to open them a tiny bit and let them slam to let my humans know I was finding my own food. Now I can’t have any fun because almost all the cabinets have special magnetic locks on them, but I’m working on holding them magnet….
Super-Power(s): I can leap over tall buildings in a single bound, or at least I jump up to mommy’s shoulder from the floor.
Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice: My favorite is the one that matches my eyes - the Lime Taffy Cat Collar but Luxor keeps chewing it so I need to get a new one. My first collar ever was the Berry Mod Cat Collar.

P&P Stylist Says…
Those eyes, oh those eyes! Renovia, we love your idea of matching the collar to his eyes, so why not check out the new Kiwi Dots Cat Collar or the chic stripes of the Limerick Cat Collar? (real men can wear a touch of pink with pride!) Or why not contrast his beautiful gray-blue fur with something like the Bluebird Stripe Cat Collar? Manly, sophisticated, and stylish.

Name: Luxor
Nick-Names: Hoover, Big-Luxor, the Alarm Clock
DOB: 6.6.6
Location: Frankfort, Maine (now residing in Westbrook, Maine)
Favorite Food: Things I Like to Chew On: Dirt, grass, string, ribbon, my tail, plastic, polymer, clothes, Stoli (my brother), shoes, bugs, lint, hair; you name it - EVERYTHING is game.
Favorite Toy: Crinkle Balls
Favorite Nap Spot: Anywhere the sun is beating.
I love… chewing on Stoli’s ear, chewing on my tail, my human brushing me, giving head butts, food.
I hate… Stoli’s collar, that little Priss prances around *wearing a collar that matches his eyes* and thinks he’s the cat’s meow. I try to humble him by taking that necklace off for him. My human doesn’t really approve of this tactic. I also completely and utterly despise my cat carrier and car rides. Just don’t like ‘em - *hmmph*
Special Skills: Scaling the screen door. I am quite adept in climbing the screen to get bugs. Now I have to find out how to get the bugs, they’re on the other side of the screen.
Super-Power(s): Warp Drive, I can go from 0 to Warp in 3.1415926 seconds.
Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice: If I were going to stoop to the level of wearing a necklace, I would wear the Ahoy Black Cat Collar. Those skulls suit my personality quite nicely. And they don’t match my eyes.

P&P Stylist Says…
Nope, we won’t even go there. Stick with the Skulls, Luxor - they work for you.

Want your pet to be featured as the Pattern & Paw Pet of the Week? Just have your pet complete the questionnaire below, and email it to us at petoftheweek @ patternandpaw . com (take out the spaces). Send us some cute photos of your fuzzy friend as well, bonus points if the photos include a stylish Pattern & Paw collar!

Name:
Nick-Names:
DOB:
Location:
Favorite Food:
Favorite Toy:
Favorite Nap Spot:
I love…
I hate…
Special Skills:
Super-Power(s): Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice:
Anything else special about your pet? Quips, stories, etc.?

Each week we’ll choose one special pet and feature him or her here, on our blog. Not only that, but the chosen pet will receive a special gift from Kalypso herself!

It’s time for the second installment of our brand new feature here on the Pattern & Paw blog: Pet of the Week!

This week, we are featuring one of the cutest baby bulldogs we’ve ever seen… Ms. Olive! When we saw the photos of this cutie, how could we resist?

Name: Olive
Nick-Names: Mrs. Wigglesworth, Bunsen Honeydew
DOB: March 11, 2008
Location: Stratford, CT
Favorite Food: Dry roasted chicken strips, but hot dogs with french fries is a close second (though I rarely score that)
Favorite Toy: I have so many, but my hands down favorite has to be my hula girl loofah dog. She has received so much play time that her bikini top has gone missing, and she has lost an ear - but I still love her all the same.
Favorite Nap Spot: Under your feet - wherever they may be
I love… People! Especially children. I love going places and meeting new people - I do my wiggle dance for them!
I hate… Getting my face washed. Apparently my wrinkles need a lot of washing, though I try to avoid that by running under the dining room table after meals.
Special Skills: Stick-mulching- I pick up a stick in the backyard and chew it up into tiny pieces of mulch. This is a service I provide so you wont’ damage your lawn mower blades running over the branches that fall. I also pull weeds out of the bricks in the patio. I think I have good future in landscaping…
Super-Power(s): Child-radar. If there is a child within 5 miles of me, I will find them and wiggle over to them for love and attention! Within milliseconds of getting out of the car, I have “locked and loaded” on every child at our immediate location and begin making a beeline to them.
Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice: Flip Flops Big Dog Collar

P&P Stylist Says…
What a cutie. And look at those colors! Her beautiful tiger stripes would look great with the Tiger Striped Big Dog Collar! Or maybe that would be too much stripe? In that case, why not highlight her girlish looks with a Sweethearts Big Dog Collar. She’d look stunning in the oh-so-sweet combination of pink and brown. Or go for a bit of ‘glam’ with our Glam Big Dog Collar… the stylish pink and black circles are *almost* as big as her puppy-dog eyes.

Want your pet to be featured as the Pattern & Paw Pet of the Week? Just have your pet complete the questionnaire below, and email it to us at petoftheweek @ patternandpaw . com (take out the spaces). Send us some cute photos of your fuzzy friend as well, bonus points if the photos include a stylish Pattern & Paw collar!

Name:
Nick-Names:
DOB:
Location:
Favorite Food:
Favorite Toy:
Favorite Nap Spot:
I love…
I hate…
Special Skills:
Super-Power(s): Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice:
Anything else special about your pet? Quips, stories, etc.?

Each week we’ll choose one special pet and feature him or her here, on our blog. Not only that, but the chosen pet will receive a special gift from Kalypso herself!

We’re introducing a new feature here on the Pattern & Paw blog: Pet of the Week!

This week, since it’s the first week and because she doesn’t get enough attention on this blog as is, we’ll be featuring our own kitty, Kalypso!

Name: Kalypso
Nick-Names: The Kitty, kitty, Voltaire (don’t ask me where that one came from)
DOB: Sometime in February, 2003 (I think)
Location: Nashville, TN
Favorite Food: Chicken. Definitely chicken (whether or not I get any, that’s another matter)
Favorite Toy: It’s a toss up between the pom-poms, the eyeball bouncy ball, rubberbands/hair ties, or the infamous red string.
Favorite Nap Spot: Um, anywhere? Though I do have to say my Jake & Micah sushi mat is pretty comfy, and it’s catnip scented so it puts me right to sleep.
I love… Wheat grass, outside time on the porch, cardboard to lay on (or any paper for that matter), lap-time, nap-time, play-time, high up places, and fresh ice water straight from my owner’s glass.
I hate… The vacuum. Don’t even get me started.
Special Skills: Drinking water out of a glass with my paw. It’s much better than that stale water they *try* to make me drink. I can sense fresh ice water from across the room. I’m also quite adept at having a full conversation with the humans, though what they say to me never makes much sense.
Super-Power(s): Super smell! I can smell that package of chicken you bought *before* it even comes out of the fridge!
Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice: I get a new collar every few weeks, so picking one is always tough! Currently, I’m wearing Ahoy Pink Skull & Crossbones Cat Collar (they think I’m a pirate or something).

P&P Stylist Says…
Kalypso has a lovely color to her. Odd and lovely at the same time. It almost looks like someone accidentally spilled some bleach over her gray fur. Lucky for her, gray goes with almost anything. To bring out the subtle green flecks in her eyes, why not try the ever-popular Lime Taffy Stripe Cat Collar? Or, to showcase her klepto-nature (I hear she likes to steal water glasses), maybe the Ahoy Pink Skull & Crossbones Cat Collar would be more fitting? For a more sophisticated look, the hot pink and black polka dots in the Dahlia Swiss Dots Cat Collar would make Kalypso a fashionisa kitty cat.

Want your pet to be featured as the Pattern & Paw Pet of the Week? Just have your pet complete the questionnaire below, and email it to us at petoftheweek @ patternandpaw . com (take out the spaces). Send us some cute photos of your fuzzy friend as well, bonus points if the photos include a stylish Pattern & Paw collar!

Name:
Nick-Names:
DOB:
Location:
Favorite Food:
Favorite Toy:
Favorite Nap Spot:
I love…
I hate…
Special Skills:
Super-Power(s): Pattern & Paw Collar of Choice:
Anything else special about your pet? Quips, stories, etc.?

Each week we’ll choose one special pet and feature him or her here, on our blog. Not only that, but the chosen pet will receive a special gift from Kalypso herself!

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve been pretty scarce ’round these parts (the blog I mean). Why? Well, we recently moved our offices across town, into a bigger and more beautiful space (if you placed an order recently you might have noticed we were running a bit behind schedule for a while - this would be why). I have to say, moving rolls and rolls of ribbon is harder than it seems. We’re still in the process of getting settled and finding adequate storage for all our supplies, but once we do I’ll be giving you all a tour of the new space (can you say, natural light?) The good news is orders are now shipping as usual, typically within 2-3 business days (and sometimes quicker). And now that the move is done, I can get back to work making and photographing a few dozen *brand new* dog and cat collar designs I’ve had waiting in the wings for some time now, including some adorable and hip polka dots, country hearts, fun fruit novelty prints, and fashion stripes. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I should share with you how the move has gone for another member of our team…

What a hard life kitty has. She gets to lounge around all day snoozing in her favorite chair on her catnip sushi mat (from Jake and Micah). Being a cat must be so stressful, right?

Please take note - our phone number has changed! We’re moving our offices and unfortunately were unable to take our existing number with us. You can find the updated phone and fax numbers on our contact page. While we had hoped to have the old number forwarded, the service has turned out to be less than reliable. So please know that the phone number previously printed on our business cards and signed in emails is now disconnected. But as always, email is still the best way to get ahold of us, no matter where our office may be!

There’s a brand new collar design at Pattern & Paw, a patriotic print just in time for the 4th of July!

Called Firecracker, it is available as a Toy Dog Collar and a Cat Collar. Order now and receive it in time for the big day! Also be sure to check out our large selection of other red, white, and blue print collars. Show your American pride!