Knitting With Dog/Cat Hair: Turn your Labrador or Moggy into a scarf

Why a Dog?
A brief look at the history and properties of dog hair as fibre. It has an angora or alpaca quality when knitted, and although not as elastic as wool, it is warmer.

Collecting the Raw Material
Not a problem if you own an Alaskan Malamute, when they blow coat it's like you're own personal snowstorm. If you're smart enough to have chosen a dog that doesn't seasonally blanket your house with fur, then you'll have to rely on collecting hair from your regular grooming sessions. And if you have a short haired breed, like a Boxer, you can still get collect the fibres and blend them with a longer fibre. Cat owners aren't left out either, but it may take a bit longer to harvest a decent amount.

Preparing the Fuzz for Spinning
Now you've got you're fuzz collected, you have to prepare it prior to spinning. The fuzz needs to be carded — which aligns the fibres in the same direction making them easier to spin, it's also used to blend the fibres.

Spinning the Yarn
Spinning is nothing more than making a heap short fibres into one long strand of yarn.

The cheapest way to do this is to use a drop spindle — instructions can be found throughout the internet. The other option is a spinning wheel — a far more expensive venture and only worth considering if you are really serious about converting large amounts of dog hair to yarn.

If you don't want to immediately purchase a spinning wheel it's worth checking with your local Spinners and Weavers Guild to see if they hire out equipment, badgering your hobbyist friends and family members for a loan of a wheel is another alternative. And then there's the always the classifieds — you'd be surprised the amount of hobby equipment that turns up there once the initial excitement of a new project wears off.

Electric spinners are also available, they aren't cheap, but are a good option for both large lots of fibre and the much smaller space required by the machine. But if you feel all this hands on work is beyond you, you can always send your fibre off to someone who'll spin it up for you.

Finishing the Yarn
Now you've spun your yarn, you need to ply it by twisting several strands together in the reverse direction of the original spin — this makes for a stronger yarn. Next comes skeining the yarn — have a volunteer stick out their arms. The yarn is then washed to set the twist, this also gets any remains dog smell out of the fibres.

The Term - Moggy

Moggy or moggie (plural moggies) is a British affectionate term for a domestic cat, but is also used as alternative name for a mongrel or mixed-breed cat whose ancestry and pedigree are unknown or only partially known.

The origin of the word moggy is not a corruption of the word 'mongrel', as many believe. It was first recorded in 1911, and was possibly derived from maggie, margie or mog, all short forms of the female name Margaret.

It is thought this was first used to describe an ungainly lumbering old cow, and it may even have been a minor rural English name for any cow; since 'moggy' was used in several 1800s English dialects as an 'affectionate name' for a cow. As rural people flocked to the cities during the latter part of the Industrial Revolution, it seems likely that the cow moggy became maggie, applied as a term of abuse for a dishevelled older woman or older prostitute.

The origin is obviously confused, but as the early 20th century streets of London became filled with very many unhealthy looking stray cats, it would have been natural to apply the term moggy to describe these unfortunate creatures.

In parts of Lancashire, England the word 'moggy' means mouse not cat. A cat was known as 'the moggy catcher'. It has been suggested that this could be the etymology of the word moggy meaning 'cat' - over time the catcher part was dropped from 'the moggy catcher' and so moggy now means both 'mouse' and 'cat'.

Study: Rats Weight Cost and Benefit

June 16, 2006 — Rats, like humans, contemplate problems by carefully weighing the costs and benefits of a situation before making decisions, according to a new study on Wistar rats, a rodent developed for research.

The study is the first to demonstrate that a non-human animal creates a desired ratio, or standard, to decide between options requiring varying levels of effort and that yield different rewards.

"In its natural habitat, rats are facing the problem that little is under their control, so they are facing various levels and forms of uncertainty all the time," said Ruud van den Bos, who led the research. "For instance, the quality and amount of food items at patches varies over time and between different patches, thus benefits are not always the same."

Van den Bos, a scientist in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, added, "The amount of energy spent to obtain these different items varies during the different foraging sessions, as sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's hot, sometimes it rains, sometimes sudden obstacles are present after heavy storms, etc."

Van den Bos and his team attempted to duplicate such challenges by manipulating barriers in a T-shaped maze that rats explored. Rats entered at the bottom of the "T," which connected two arms.

At the end of each arm was a chamber filled with treats. One side had a low reward — one sugar pellet — while the other side had three to five sugar pellets.

Rats that wanted the higher rewards had to climb steep barriers. It would be like placing a person's favorite dessert behind a Marines-type training wall that would have to be scaled before the individual could nosh. The researchers varied the size of the barrier and the amount of reward on that side to see how the rodents would react.

At first the rats went for the easy pickings, but when they determined more sweets were available on the other side of the maze, they exerted additional effort, but only after a certain point. When the pain yielded too little gain, they stuck with the tiny treat.

Findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.

The researchers also noted that rats seem to behave according to an internal constant standard, a relative ratio for each situation by which choices are measured. This is comparable to how a car purchaser may enter a dealership with a budget in mind. Since this standard varies depending on the situation, it is possibly part inherent and part created by individuals.

John Salamone, professor and head of Behavioral Neuroscience at the University of Connecticut, developed the T-maze for previous studies. He also recently authored a paper in Current Psychiatry Reviews that determined problems in the brain associated with effort-related processes, such as how much energy an individual will put out to obtain a reward, could be linked to depression.

This suggests rats get depressed too. Salamone's own research indicates interference with dopamine, a neurotransmitter chemical in the brain, may make individuals less likely to work for rewards and biased toward low-effort alternatives.

"Exertion of effort and energy and energy-related decision-making are fundamental for survival, in humans and other animals, and I am very happy that more and more people are getting involved in this sort of research," said Salamone, who added the new work as "an excellent piece of research."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Classification: Rattus (Rats)
Location: Worldwide
Habitat: Areas populated by humans, as well as forests and deserts.
Diet: Omnivorous
Size: Up to 10 inches in length and 1 lb in weight.
Description: Large, dark eyes; pointy noses; cupped ears; short fine hair on tails; long, slender bodies; back legs longer and stronger than their front legs; clawed feet covered with short, silky fur.
Cool Facts: They have glands on the bottom of their feet, so they leave a wet scent trail wherever they walk. They use their tails for many functions including balance, temperature control and communication.
Conservation Status: Common