Patrick Peifer is the MacGyver of dog dads.
After struggling to trim his rescue dog Oliver's nails, the Eagan father of two (plus Oliver) decided to make a homemade harness for the pooch, similar to the contraptions used at professional pet grooming salons.
"There is a product on the market that does this ... but it costs nearly $200, which I thought was ridiculous," Peifer said.
Since Pefier's wife wouldn't let him use any of her purses, he found one at Goodwill for $8, cut four holes in it, then put Oliver, a Boston terrier, inside and hooked the purse to some gym equipment hanging from a doorway. Voilà. Oliver seemingly settled into the hammock, long enough for Peifer to get the job done and for his daughter, Kendal, to snap some photos.
Kendal posted a series of photos to Twitter: "my dog hates his nails getting clipped so my dad literally bought a purse & cut holes in it."
The tweet has over 86,000 retweets and 340,000 likes. And it has been written about by every outlet from BuzzFeed to People.
Some were drawn in by the ingenuity of the device. Others loved Peifer's addition of a head lamp and wanted to know if he was single. And a few people sent Peifer messages about copying his method for their own dogs.
Peifer said: "If I can inspire some other people with my idea or just save them a few bucks on buying overpriced contraptions or grooming services, then I'm happy."
