Working at an animal shelter has given me the opportunity to meet and care for hundreds of cats and dogs of all shapes, sizes, personalities and backgrounds. I noticed that these cats and dogs would come to our shelter with horribly matted fur, disheveled, scared and uncertain of their futures. As the Marketing Manager not only did I want to see these beautiful souls be happy and cared for, I wanted the community to be aware of the types of animals that find themselves in shelters through no fault of their own and break the stigma that shelter pets are “broken”.

This is where my passion for curious and quirky began. Wanting to boost our re homing numbers, I contacted an amazing pet groomer who agreed to take 2 of our scruffy inmates and turn them from drab to fab in a bid to find them a new home. I then formed an alliance with K9 Photography who agreed to photograph the transformation as it happened. The results were amazing. The dog’s entire persona changed. These timid little darlings got their sparkle back. And after posting their makeover photos on our Facebook page the animals were rehomed in an instant. LOOKS  (as it turns out) MATTER!

From that moment on the creativity began to flow – if looks mattered that much than how can we make all of our animal’s look and feel as amazing as the few animals we got to give makeovers too?

And so Sausage and Sanchez was born.

I decided I would make them collars, neckties and jackets to spruce them up and have been so honoured to be able to make their stay in our shelter at little bit more special.

The Products:

I have been lucky to be able to test my products on animals that thrive for company and distraction from the situations they find themselves in. They are all Australian designed and made and 10% of all profits go to the Animal Welfare League of Queensland shelter.

Behind the Name:

Sausage and Sanchez are two little shelter dogs that took my heart and ran off it with it.

Odie Allan Sanchez

Chihuahua, Odie Allan Sanchez came in to my life in May 2011 just a month after I started working at the shelter. Odie Sanchez was dumped and left to wander the streets before being found and brought to the shelter suffering malnutrition, flea bitten ears and kennel cough. I put my hand up to foster this tiny little man and within a few hours I was hooked. I was not giving this dog back. He has spunk and a strut like no other. He knows what he likes and will not settle until he gets it. If he doesn’t like you, you will know about it (and have the bite marks to prove it) – He loves the finer things in life and HATES being cold. The Sanchez is a DIVA and my little shadow.

Hans Sausage

Han’s is a clumsy little puppy who at 5 weeks old was left all alone in a dog park to fend for himself. He was brought to the shelter and as soon as I saw him I had to call him mine. Organising this adoption I thought would be hard, as I pretty much had to sell my soul to my partner to be able to keep the Sanchez who had desired a Burmese Mountain Dog for as long as I could remember. Keeping two little dogs was going to be pushing it. But when Tom saw Han’s goofy little face he fell – HARD and so two big dog-loving people came to be the parents of a Chihuahua and a Dachshund GO FIGURE.

Han’s is an adorable, rough and tumble terror. He has energy to burn and a big wet nose and eyes that you cannot say no to.