A Mommy Story

It’s been two years since we first met Cosmo and brought him into our family. And since that time, he’s grown from a lanky pup with gigantic paws into the solid dog (still with gigantic paws) that he is today.

 Cosmo at 5mo old

Even though he’s nearly one hundred pounds now, he still gets cold easily. That large size didn’t come with a lot of fur. He’s got the ultra-short pit bull coat that is nearly bare on his underside, and he doesn’t have a large amount of fat for insulation. So when he goes outside on frigid days, he gets cold. It’s common to see him dash to the fireplace after a trip outside, trying to warm himself while he shivers.

Last year I bought Cosmo a sweater for the holidays. He didn’t seem to mind wearing it, but he didn’t seem particularly thrilled with it, either. And I felt a little like the crazy dog lady who dresses up her dog like a child.

But as fall arrived this year, I noticed that the cold did affect Cosmo. We had bought him a cute Superman sweater for Halloween, and I put it on him a couple of weeks ago when it was particularly cold. I’ve never seen a dog look so happy in a sweater. He seemed upset when I took it off of him. The next day, when I held it up, he practically put it on by himself, lifting his paws in advance of me taking them to guide them into the holes. I can’t feel guilty about putting him in sweaters anymore – he clearly likes it and wants additional layers of warmth.

Now, it’s not easy to find sweaters for Cosmo. He wears an XXL. I know, right? He’s not THAT big of a dog. But his chest and neck are so massive that nothing less than an XXL will fit across his front half.

I wanted to find something warmer for him for the freezing days ahead of us, so I looked online and found a sweatshirt for dogs. It came in XXL, and the description even mentioned that it was designed to fit dogs with a thick, muscular neck. I checked his measurements against the size chart, and he easily fell within the requirements. Even better, it opened in the back with velcro – if it was too loose on his back half, I could possibly add more velcro to make it tighter.

When it finally arrived this week, I pulled it out of the bag and Cosmo was immediately sniffing it. It was a nice heavyweight sweatshirt material, so I knew it would be plenty warm on him. Cosmo wouldn’t leave me alone, so I tried it on him right away.

Um…this is an XXL?

It fit without any trouble around his back half, but the top 4″ or so were impossible to close around his deep chest and neck.

Poor guy. He was so excited to get new clothing, and it’s too small for him to wear. I feel your pain, Cosmo. Clothing never fits me right, either. Your chest, my hips – we’re not made for standard clothing templates.

Only in his case, there’s no option above XXL.

Is there a Big & Tall clothing store for cold dogs?