My relationship with dog accessories is both simple and complicated. I want the best for my boys. As simple as that. Yet it is often a challenge to find the products that meet my rather long check list.

Sometimes I look back and wonder how we lived when the choice was rather scarce. Oscar had very few things. He didn’t care about toys much – my slipper was always the best thing in the whole world. He didn’t really care about his collars and leads either, but I did…

On his first birthday Oscar received a collar and lead set hand-made to order by a company that specialised in leather accessories. The set was beautiful, but in time it started to look tired and most definitely not as special as I’ve always imagined. Even now it makes me feel heartbroken thinking that my wonderful boy did not get what he truly deserved. I know it would be the last thing on his mind (he was a dog, after all!), but I wish, I so wish, we had Molly & Stitch back then.

I’ve discovered them when Cooper was a youngster. Luckily for my bank account, Coop was sorted pretty well from the start having acquired a fabulous collection of collars and leads to suit every need and walk. Besides, I really wanted an all-leather collar, which was not available at the time. So I left things to marinate for a while.

And before we knew, Fred joined us and, in a blink, grew up.

As his first birthday approached, I knew I wanted him to have a Molly & Stitch collar as the only option. The collar that would be known as  “Fred’s collar”, worn day to day, age beautifully and remain soft to the touch regardless of its wear. Somehow I feel connected to my boys through their accessories – and it would hurts me visually and emotionally if they did not have the very best I could afford. I ordered a classic leather Butter collar and a gift box to put it in (which I now use as a keepsake box for Fred’s puppy things)

I confess, when the collar arrived I spent a few days taking it out of the box to hold and smell. I was smitten. The scent took me back to my childhood and the smell of leather shoes found in a traditional shoe shop where I’d happily camp for hours. The softness of the leather was addictive. It was definitely the right present for my spoilt boy.

And it was definitely a kind of collar I also wanted to Cooper. So I’ve got one for him, too. In olive. To compliment his eyes.

Plus the extra long leather dog leashes, which turned out to be so, so soft, it was orgasmic to touch them!

Perhaps, it’s a little silly to wax lyrical about dog collars and leads paragraph after paragraph, but if the love for a dog could be put into a product, I’d say it’s Molly&Stitch.

Everything my boys have is special, from the product and the box to the little label that bears a name of a person who made that particular piece. The experience is very tactile. The quality is wonderful. And it’s not only about the leather. Regardless of how much we paid for a collar and lead in the past, it’s only the brass hardware of Molly&Stitch that remained shiny and golden even though Fred’s collar was exposed to heavy rain, mud, dirt and daily use.

I really do love everything these guys do. I know that in time our collection will grow because I now dream of rope leads and dog beds, too. I think, I am addicted – and it’s an addiction I don’t want to be cured from.

Photo credit: Molly & Stitch olive green and classic “Butter” collar and leads photographed by me