There’s a budding new business in town, and the CEO answers to Snoopy.

Snoopy is White Rock-area resident Samantha Abedin’s schnauzer and the inspiration for her company, Big Boy Bones

The company’s plush toy bones are in nine stores in the Dallas area and will be part of an “approved care package” for President Obama’s dog, Bo,  that will be sent to the White House at the end of the month.

Not bad considering Abedin only started making them in February of this year.

Downtown Dallas’ Petropolitan was the first business to stock Abedin’s bones and has been carrying them for four months.

Chris Watts, who runs Petropolitan with co-owner Todd Fisher, handpicked all the Texas-made products that will be included in Bo’s care package, and Abedin asked to be a part of it.

“The bones are a great concept,” he said. “Functional and pretty.”

Abedin, whose grandmother taught her how to sew at an early age, knows a thing or two about both. She started sewing handbags in 2003 to pass the time while caring for her ailing mother, also a creative designer.

“She was my thread cutter,” Abedin said fondly. “They [her mother and grandmother] made all of our summer clothes. I have a 50-year-old featherweight Singer sewing machine, and I still sew on it. I have six or seven sewing machines but always end up going back to the one I was taught on.”

Abedin continued sewing after her mother’s passing. She said she receives large amounts of fabrics from her friend Michael Bradley who works for ID Collections, an interior design company.

She works with the durable, discontinued fabrics the company no longerneeds — some of which Abedin wasn’t sure about making into purses.

The fabric, which Abedin calls “rattan,” was blue and white and not quite the right fit for a purse.  But she said she knew something would come out of it. Inspiration struck one day after Snoopy was diagnosed with diabetes in February. Abedin said she wanted to make something to comfort him

“It hit me — and I thought ‘dog bone’! ” she said.

Several months after the creation of the first Big Boy Bone, some of them are being sold in Portland, Washington and New York.

“The bones haven’t been around that long but are really taking off,” she said. “Nobody’s saying ‘no.’ Everyone is saying ‘yes.’ The pet industry is very friendly and happy to help each other. Everyone seems so proud of what I’ve accomplished.”

Abedin said it takes her about 15 minutes to make a bone — the longest part of the process is picking the fabric.

“I get so picky,” she said.. “And there is so much to choose from. I guess that’s just the just the designer in me.”

Abedin said that on average, Big Boy Bones will last about a month. And even though dogs probably don’t care how pretty it looks, she said she creates each one with care.

She added that not every customer purchases a bone for their pet.

“One lady refused to give it to her dog,” she said with laugh. “She said it was too pretty.”


INFOBOX
To see Samantha’s Abedin’s work, and to find a list of retailers, visit bigboybones.com and samanthaabedin.com.

Jenice Johnson is the White Rock neighborsgo editor. You can reach her at jsjohnson@neighborsgo.com or 214-977-8461.