Sunday 11 December 2011

Trix the Beagle (I think)

This is about Trix, a Chad Valley dog that I aquired a few weeks ago.

He came to me very grubby, with holes in his paws and only one ear.
I could see there was a beautiful dog inside waiting to be discovered.

This is Trix having his first dry bath

He looks a bit dusty as he was covered with oats (the method I use to clean old bears and dogs).
He also has what I would call a 'hang dog expression' due to lack of stuffing in his neck.
I cleaned him up, brushed and combed him and got his coat to a reasonable condition.  It would never look as good as new, because originally I think he was mainly white.  The oats work well, but not that well!
His paws were given a few stitches which tidied them up nicely and I restitched his little stubby tail as it was coming off.

I then set about sorting his ears out.  As you can see he only had one, so I had to make another somehow.
There was no way I could find matching material, so the only way was to use his one ear to make two.
Luckily it was double sided and not lined with a different material.  I split the ear and made new inner ears out of ultrasuede.
I was pleased with the result when I restitched them to his head.

He then had a bit of new stuffing to lift his head and I discovered a squeaker that needed mending.  I got it to work fine until I put it back.  Once inside him it needed a sharp tap to make it work.  His stuffing isn't as firm as before, so the squeaker moves a bit if it is just pushed gently.

He needed a ribbon or collar and I remembered a little red one that I had in my ribbon box.  I had got it from a craft fair a few weeks earlier thinking that it would be ideal for a toy dog someday.
That day had come and Trix now wears his 'bling' collar with pride.  Isn't he a handsome boy?


It can't be seen on  these photos, but his
collar has faux diamonds on it

1 comment:

  1. I can't believe how good you are at restoring these sad little once loved animals - I so admire your work and hard work too at putting the little souls back together. Just love reading through your blog on each little rescue - keep up the good work.

    p.s. thanks for the info on cleaning up my teddy bear. I think I did thank you in an email a while back - never got around to cleaning him up, but with a spare day ahead of me I am about to do it today. Will let you know how he gets on. xx

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