Go ahead, dress your pet for Halloween

Halloween is here and none of our animal family is dressing up for the occasion.

Teddy, our Lab, is currently sporting a festive Halloween bow tie. Abby, our 16-year old cat, is unimpressed with the holiday in general. Wednesday, Jordan’s 1-year old cat, isn’t all that thrilled, either.

In 2017, 16 percent of Americans decked out their furry family members in Halloween attire, according to thebalance.com. The most popular costumes for last year were pumpkin, hot dog, bumble bee and the devil.

Last year, Jordan was among the 16 percent who purchased animal costumes. We were standing in line at TJMaxx when she spied the Halloween get-up.

“Look, wouldn’t Wednesday look adorable in this?” Jordan asked, taking a small costume off the rack.

I shrugged. “What is it?”

Jordan said rather dramatically, “It’s an ice cream cone. Look at the hat. Isn’t it the cutest thing? It’s a cherry. I could enter Wednesday in the vet’s Halloween costume contest.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to recover from my shrug, “When is the entry due?”

Jordan did a quick check on her phone. “We’ve got plenty of time.”

“One day, two days? Could you be a little more specific?” I rolled my eyes.

“Midnight tonight.” Jordan replied.

I looked at my watch: 7:30 p.m. “Grab the costume.”

Jordan carefully placed the garment on top of cooking utensils and a set of mixing bowls. I swear, I’m not making this up. We were figuratively making an ice cream cone.

Wednesday didn’t put up much of a fuss when Jordan put the cone part of the costume on her. The then-black kitten rolled around trying to rub the costume off but after a few tries went back to playing with her paper clips.

The cherry-on-top hat wasn’t as easy. Wednesday hated it. She shook her head and rubbed it up against a rocking chair. After about a minute, Jordan took the hat off the “not having it” kitten.

“Let’s set up the shot and we’ll put the hat back on her at the last minute,” I suggested.

Jordan agreed.

The first photos weren’t good. You couldn’t tell Wednesday was an ice cream cone. We decided to add a prop. Jordan grabbed her dad’s half gallon of vanilla ice cream from the freezer.

We put the ice cream carton on the floor and plopped Wednesday with her cheery-on-top hat next to it. Jordan immediately started snapping photos.

With about two hours left before the deadline, we downloaded the new photos into the computer and started editing.

These were much better. You could tell Jordan’s precious kitten was a three-scooped ice cream cone with a cherry on top. Not a happy three-scooped cone but a three-scoop cone, nonetheless.

Wednesday’s pic won the contest. For their efforts, she and Jordan received a terrific basket filled with toys and treats and an ice cream gift card.

There was one casualty in the photo shoot. Jordan and I were so busy editing the photos we forgot about Ed’s favorite nighttime snack. When we finally did remember, it was a half-melted glob.

Learn more DIY

Websites for DIY cat Halloween costumes:

1. hgtv.com: 15 diy pet costumes for halloween pictures

2. diynetwork.com: halloween costumes for pets pictures

3. popsugar.com/smart living/DIY Cat Costumes 38141019

4. pinterest.com/explore/diy cat costume

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