TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

New Line Of Canine Clothing Lets Dogs Be P-awesome

ADVERTISEMENT

By CHERYL BENTLEY The Suncoast News

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 28, 2008

If you're a chic pooch, of course you must have the perfect running togs to run with Mom and Dad, or just the right motorcycle gear when you and your humans roar around on the Hog.

Read My Paws to the rescue. The line of doggie - and a few human - fashions started by Trinity resident Patricia C. Patterson sports the latest thing in doggie dress. Clothes for dogs feature such canine-appropriate slogans as "I'm Wearing Nothing Under This Shirt," "Go Green, Get a Hybrid," and "Dogtoberfest."

One shirt from her organic line, "Recycle. Adopt a Dog" was featured in the summer edition of the glossy quarterly magazine Modern Dog.

The dog line is a labor of love for Patterson, who has had her own Holiday-based Patterson Marketing Group for 14 years and was previously a marketing director for AT&T Paradyne in Largo.

Patterson credits the inspiration for the line to her dog Baarney, whom the Pattersons got in 2005 after having weathered a problematic 2004 when her husband Robin went through a difficult cure for prostate cancer and her office was destroyed by Hurricane Jeanne.

Earlier, when dating, the Pattersons had considered getting a Bedlington, a terrier with an uncanny resemblance to a lamb, and naming him Baarney. They remembered their discussion after surviving 2004. It was time for a Baarney, they decided.

"He has changed our life," Patterson said, her words rapid-pace. Her eyes filled with tears. "When I got Baarney, I discovered this love, my love for animals."

Patterson got the idea for the clothing line when in typical high-energy style; she put together a team for a Race for the Cure in Trinity, which raises funds to fight breast cancer.

As a proud mom, she signed up Baarney as a member of her team of 50. Baarney, she smiled, raised more money than any other team member.

Her team members all had shirts designed especially for the run. Patterson made a shirt for Baarney, too.

It was a hit.

"People just went crazy," Patterson recalled. "I thought 'maybe I'm on to something.'

"

Read My Paws officially launched in March. "I wanted something that reflects the lifestyle that dogs and owners share," she explained.

That style includes a Green Paws line of organic shirts with slogans such as "Save Paper, Use a Tree," and a Diva Paws inspired by Tabaatha, another Bedlington who joined the Patterson family last year.

Tabaatha, Patterson said, "is full of herself." The first shirt in that line reads, "Nobody Tells the Princess No."

For the biker dog, Biker Paws includes a bandanna with "I Love the Feel of Bugs in My Teeth" and a shirt reading "I've Got Big Pipes." A Zen line also is on tap with slogans such as "Be the Treat" in observance of Zen's emphasis on being.

Patterson gets ideas for the slogans and then works with a freelance designer. The shirts retail for $20, or $25 for the organic version.

Ever mindful of the gifts her two dogs have given her, Patterson is researching suitable animal rescue groups with which to partner on projects. "I'm not a person who watches Oprah, but I heard her say, 'Follow your heart.'

"My heart was screaming at me that I can help. I just want to tell you these little guys give us so much. They can change your life."

The woman who found she had a talent for marketing after studying accounting at Villanova University, in Pennsylvania, has no doubt her doggie wear will take off.

"It is something I can do in retirement, but more than that, it is something I can give back."

READ MY PAWS

FOR INFORMATION: www.readmypaws.com

WHERE: Paws items are available at Recycled Cycle, 6837 State Road 54, New Port Richey and Doggie Cakes, 5644 Main St., New Port RIchey

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT