Tug o' War

My two dogs are constantly tearing through toys--literally. The floor of our home is littered with the mercilessly disemboweled carcasses of stuffed bears, shreds pulled off of rope toys, deflated balls and other destroyed playthings. Spending money on such toys is an exercise in financial waste--might as well open my wallet and directly hand Maddow and Willie five-dollar bills. So, I either spend a buttload on heavyduty latex toys like Kongs...or I make them.

Weeding through old clothes, I encountered a pair of ratty jeans with a ginormous hole directly southwest of the crotch (as modeled by the lovely and talented Rebecca). While indecent exposure laws dictate that I no longer wear the trashed trousers in public, and such damaged dungarees couldn't be donated to charity, I'd feel weird throwing them in the garbage.

This is where the paths of creativity and thrift intersect in a happy, fun way. Rather than toss, I cut them up into sections, and tore them into strips (this is way more stress-busting and therapeutic than you'd think), so I ended up with a sizable pile of denim strips. I took those babies, tied them, knotted, braided them, and voila--a nice supply of tough denim toys for the Canine-Americans in my care to gnaw on.

Should keep them busy for a few minutes.