Checking in with old friends who get better with time

One of our very best friends, Molly B. Rubin, often reminds us how important it is to check in with old friends on a regular basis, and Twitter has proven to be a great way to keep in  touch. We’re very proud of our longstanding friendship with The Bark, still the premier magazine for dogs and the people who love them. Together, the two-person powerhouse team of Claudia Kawczynska and Cameron Woo created the gold standard of dog magazines at their Berkeley home base – not to mention a bevy of best-selling books, including their latest title, “Dog Joy.”

When it got its start, The Bark was the first publication of its kind: a rare new “breed” of maverick magazine celebrating deceptively “ordinary” mutts (like Ms. Molly B.!) and the truly extraordinary people who adore them. And The Bark still maintains its lead, despite lots of healthy competition in a market now filled with dog-themed glossies. Plus, The Bark’s online presence, notably its blog, fills the space between its bi-monthly issues so dog lovers don’t miss a single beat, and it delivers strong content with great style – which is something Crypton certainly appreciates! Follow them on Twitter @The_Bark.

From California, we cross the country to Maine, where FetchDog has been a Crypton supporter since its successful launch in 2007. We’re so proud to be staples in the FetchDog catalog – our Screen Saver dog bed is on their page of Best Sellers! And we’re over the moon that our pet beds have a place in the home of glamorous Glenn Close, whose husband Dave Shaw founded the site together with his son Ben. We never miss “Lively Licks,” Glenn’s fabulous Fetchdog blog – check it out, and follow the company on Twitter @ FetchDog.

Fetchdog recently partnered with UrbanHound, the terrific site for city pets and their people. Become part of the UrbanHound community for great, opinionated advice on services and products for dogs in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. 

Posted by Julia Szabo.

Giveaway on Phetched!

Interested in our fun William Wegman Doodle Dog pet beds? Our friends at phetched and  DesignerDoggy are hosting a pet bed giveaway this week. And we can’t help but notice they’ve chosen a lovely green for St. Patrick’s Day!

Visit phetched.com for all the entry details. You have until Friday night to enter.

Of course, if you aren’t the winner, you can view all the available colors and order a pet bed of your own on our Web site. Check out our wide variety of petbeds !

Crypton dog beds get a shout-out on Martha Stewart Radio’s “Morning Living”

I love my job – it lets me meet amazing animals and their equally awesome people. Two of my absolute favorite animal lovers are Kim Fernandez and Betsy Karetnick, the dynamic duo that co-hosts “Morning Living” on Sirius XM’s MarthaStewart Radio. Both are proud owners of multiple dogs that they adopted from animal shelters, which means they’re my kind of gals. Love them!

I’ve been very lucky to be invited on this show many times. It’s serious fun donning head phones to chat with Kim and Betsy, and answer their listeners’ questions live. In fact, the feedback I’ve gotten from the show’s loyal followers is so inspiring that it was a driving force behind my new book, “Pretty Pet-Friendly.” After all, what could be prettier or more pet-friendly than lifestyle legend Martha Stewart and her talented team?

This morning at around 7 a.m. EST, we discussed dog grooming, which is even more important in winter than in summer, believe it or not. When a pet’s coat gets tangled and matted or dry and flaky, it can’t insulate animals from the cold as efficiently, so regular brushing and bathing with gentle, all-natural, conditioning shampoos are absolute musts.

Of course, when asked about my favorite pet products, Crypton dog beds topped the list! Don’t miss this fabulous, eye-opening show every weekday morning between the hours of 7 and 10 a.m. EST.

Meanwhile, for your weekend pet-expert fix, be sure to tune in to Greg Kleva’s always-enlightening show, It’s a Dog’s Life, Saturdays at 8 p.m. A ringer for Keanu Reeves, this gifted
dog trainer is as easy to listen to as he is easy on the eyes. Follow him on Twitter : GregTheDogGuy.

Posted by Julia Szabo.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is, without a doubt, the ultimate K9 beauty contest. Appropriately, visitors to the show this week at New York’s Madison Square Garden walked away with super-stylish arm candy: fabulous Crypton totes.

This year’s winner, as everyone knows, is a scintillating Scottie named Sadie. But Sadie’s not the only dog star in Westminster’s firmament – and there’s more to Westminster winners than just style and looks.

Crypton loves any individual or organization that combines good looks and good works, so we’d like to “paws” to appreciate the fact that more and more dogs around the country – including many Westminster champions as well as shelter-adopted mutts – are volunteering their time as certified therapy animals, spreading cheer at hospitals and raising the spirits of young and old alike.

David Frei, known to millions as the dapper co-host of the USA Network’s Westminster broadcast, is a longtime advocate of animal assisted therapy. His tireless efforts to promote his charitable pet project, Angel on a Leash, are responsible for raising the national profile of therapy dogs and inspiring so many Americans to get their dogs certified.

David doesn’t just talk the talk – he dog-walks the walk. His own three dogs are all certified to do the important work of visiting hospital patients, applying the healing power of paws wherever they go. Here’s the youngest member of the Frei family, a gorgeous Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Angel, taking a break between hospital visits on her Crypton bed, which we think coordinates beautifully with her lovely red hair!

Sweet dreams, Angel – bless you and all your fellow therapy dogs for the wonderful work you do. You are truly Angels on Leashes. 

Posted by Julia Szabo.

Crypton Loves William Wegman, our Funny Valentine

Can baking make the world a better place? Crypton believes it can!

For me, baking is much more than a means to a delicious end; it’s also an excellent form of meditation. As I focus on assembling the ingredients for a banana loaf, or combining flour and butter to create a tart crust (my secret for flakiness is one tablespoon of white vinegar), I stay blissfully in the moment. Besides, nothing perfumes a home better than an apple pie in the oven! (I toss cubes of Fuji apples with organic powdered sugar, which yields a delightfully thick “gravy.”) My dogs, on the other hand, prefer when I bake them crunchy biscuits

Now, with global efforts underway to assist the relief effort in Haiti, baking has become more than a meditation: It’s an easy way for people to feel they are making a contribution to that lifesaving effort, however small.

Today, the excellent web site Supervegan is holding a bake sale for Haiti at the Angels & Kings Bar, while one of my favorite NYC stores, Domus Unaffected Living, has been busily baking cookies in an ongoing effort to raise much-needed funds.

You can make a statement with baking, and that statement will be humanitarian and heartfelt. Baking is so satisfying because it feeds a compassionate spirit’s hunger to help.

Of course, while you’re at it, you can also make a fashion statement, protecting your clothes with a cheerful apron. So, whoever and whatever you bake for – a person, pet, or cause -
why not do it in style?

Posted by Julia Szabo.

Crypton salutes leaders in spay/neuter movement

We suspected Dr. Andrew Kaplan had a good chance of becoming Crypton’s “pet” vet the minute we noticed the seats in the waiting room at his Manhattan practice, City Veterinary Care. They’re upholstered in Posey Lapis, and Material Dog Turquoise, which happen to coordinate smartly with the scrubs worn by the doc and his hardworking staff!

But just as Crypton combines style and substance, Dr. Kaplan’s HQ is much more than a good-looking space. It’s an animal hospital where rescued pets seeking a forever home are treated with the exact same TLC as the pets of A-list celebrity clients (they include Peter Yarrow, Kristen Chenoweth, David Hyde Pierce, and Bernadette Peters.)

That’s one reason Dr. Kaplan is called the Albert Schweitzer of homeless pets. Here’s another: In 2009, Dr. Kaplan launched a non-profit called The Toby Project. “Spay/Neuter Today, Save Thousands Tomorrow” is The Toby Project’s slogan. Its inspiration is Kaplan’s mutt Toby (pictured) and its mission is to solve the pet overpopulation problem in New York City by offering free and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries to pets of low-income families. With City Vet Care’s trademark TLC, these life-saving sterilization procedures are performed at zero cost to owners of mutts, pit bulls, and cats (purebred owners pay $75) on a mobile surgical van that drives out to economically challenged New York communities. To date, the Project has succeeded in sterilizing well over 2,000 pets!

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Teri Austin – you remember her as a star of TV’s “Knots Landing” – is more than a lovely, talented actress; she heads up The Amanda Foundation, a terrific non-profit that also offers free spay/neuter services to dogs and cats on its “Spaymobile.”  In recognition of the sad fact that animal shelters are filled beyond capacity with unwanted pit bulls, several locations across the country offer to “fix” pit bulls for free – they include D.C.’s Washington Humane Society; East Bay Pit Fix in Oakland, CA; Animal Ark in Hastings,  Humane Society of Southern Arizona; Boston’s Alliance for Animals; North County Humane Society in Jupiter, FL; and the Humane Society of New York.

Many organizations across the country offer low-cost dog and cat sterilization to economically challenged pet owners; to locate one near you, consult SPAY/USA. But one person’s definition of low-cost – even if it’s just $20 – might still be prohibitively expensive to someone else. Thanks to a grant from Maddie’s Fund, at Arizona’s Maricopa Animal Care & Control, they actually pay owners of pits and pit mixes $20 to have their dogs sterilized!  More free and incentive-driven sterilization services are desperately needed to combat our country’s pet over population crisis.

Animal lovers look forward to a day when free spay/neuter programs become widely available to pet owners in need, regardless of breed. By reaching out to their communities and offering free spay/neuter to all who ask for it, The Toby Project and The Amanda Foundation are leading by example – and for that, we salute them.

Thank you to Melissa Wiedemann of Barking Photo for these terrific photographs – check out her web site to commission your pet’s portrait!

Posted by Julia Szabo.

Here at Crypton, we love to spoil our pets. The holiday season provides a perfect excuse to shower our four-legged family members with a few special gifts of their own. Whether it’s a squeaky toy or a brand-new bed, even pets can get into the holiday spirit.
The classic canine stocking-stuffer for many dog owners has always been a good bone or treat purchased from a local pet store. But this year, we wanted to share our favorite alternative: homemade dog treats. The recipe below makes a fun Saturday afternoon project – and believe us, your dog will go nuts over these gourmet treats!
Try your hand at bow wow baking this weekend! We’d love to hear your stories of your pet’s holiday spirit.

Bow Wow Peanut Butter Bites

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients and stir with hand or fork. The dough should be sticky. Roll out onto wax paper about 1/4” to 1/2” thick. Use various sizes of bone cookie cutters to cut out shapes from the rolled out dough (No cookie cutters? You can use a knife to cut small squares). Repeat until all dough is gone. Once the treats are finished baking, let them cool. Freezing the treats will keep them fresher longer.

A quicker version: For faster treats, once the dough is mixed, take the dough and roll out evenly in a nonstick 11×17 cookie sheet pan. Use a butter knife and cut squares throughout the entire pan to your desired size. For small dogs, I do 1/2” x 1/2” squares. Then stick them in the oven to bake. Use a spatula to remove the treats from the pan and let them cool. Once cooled, break the treats apart with your hand. Freezing the treats will keep them fresher longer.

Bake: 350 degrees
Time: 15-20 minutes*
* Time will vary. Shorter if you want the treats softer, longer if you want the treats crunchy.

Still looking for a last-minute gift? Dog treats could also be the perfect homemade present for the pet-lover in your life. Include a copy of the recipe to offer a gift that will keep on giving!

Healthystuff.org a non-profit environmental research organization, recently revealed the results of its first-ever study of pet products. Researchers at Michigan’s Ecology Center used an X-ray Fluorescence Analyzer to examine over 400 pet products for hazardous chemicals. The findings showed that many mass-produced pet products – especially dog beds – are treated with brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which a 2007 EPA study linked to hyperthyroidism in cats.

All this is eye-opening and frightening, and it means that animal lovers need to take precautions when purchasing items for the most vulnerable consumers: pets. This news is particularly upsetting to animal lovers with kids, who often snuggle up on the family dog’s bed right alongside Spot.

We believe that kids should cuddle up with dogs at every opportunity – and that pets should not have to nest on bedding that emits toxic substances as they sleep! Here’s just one more reason to love Crypton dog beds Crypton’s green technology ensures that your dog will rest his or her head on the safest, most stylish dog bed available – no BFRs here.

healthystuff.org urges concerned parents (of kids as well as pets) to support federal regulatory reform that would require manufacturers to take responsibility for their products’ safety. Until our government requires companies to take responsibility, it’s nice to know some have their priorities straight. For proving that high-tech does not have to mean harmful … kudos, Crypton.

Posted by Julia Szabo.

What fun to have my new book, Pretty Pet-Friendly: Easy Ways to Keep Spot’s Digs Stylish and Spotless, featured in Katie Knorovsky’s great Washington Post Express article about high-style pet accessories, including the Crypton Throver! The book was also featured in Jill Sell’s terrific story on pet-friendly decor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer!

I had one goal when authoring Pretty Pet-Friendly: to encourage shelter-animal adoption by helping animal lovers with simple, easy-to-follow tips to keep a neat, orderly, and above all, chic “animal house.”

Of course, Crypton figures prominently in the book. And to drive my point home, when styling the cover shoot, I arranged to have an icon of chair design custom-upholstered in Crypton Suede “Icing”:  Milo Baughman’s 989 Lounge Chair, originally designed in the 1960s, is still manufactured by Thayer Coggin, renowned furniture makers in North Carolina, USA.

Besides sporting a stylish, sumptuous fabric cover that’s pretty impervious to stains, moisture, odors, and bacteria (thank you, Crypton), this pretty, pet-friendly chair sits on a metal frame – which makes it claw- and jaw-proof to boot. As for Icing’s pale purplish-periwinkle-blue hue, it’s so chic that my publisher’s graphic-design team chose it as the accent color of the inside pages!

How do you keep your “animal house” chic and clean? Tell us in the comments.