Everyone who has ever owned a puppy or a kitten has experienced this problem: Their new pet suffers from separation anxiety. They want to be held constantly. And they want to go everywhere with you: To the kitchen ...to the bedroom ...to the bathroom ...out to the garage ...and everywhere else!

And when they aren't following you everywhere you go, they want body contact: A warm body to snuggle up against.

When we got our first puppy, a small Chihuahua named Koda, we quickly relized that puppies demand attention ...a lot of attention! Like most puppies, Koda hated being alone. He would follow us around everywhere and always wanted to be held. Obviously, holding him or carrying him around all the time wasn't an option. And of course, we couldn't get very much done with just one free hand while we were carrying a puppy around. This was a pet problem begging for a solution.

We finally started wearing zip-up sweatshirts so that we could put our puppy inside and zip him in just enough for his head to pop-out. This experience sparked the idea to create a pullover sweatshirt with a specialized pocket, or puppy pouch, just for our puppy to snuggle in. We searched the internet and looked in all the local pet stores, but none of the available dog carriers worked as well as our makeshift sweatshirt solution. We also looked everywhere for sweatshirts with big pouch pockets which we could use to serve our own puppy carrying purposes, but none were up to the task. To our amazement, no one had ever designed clothing apparel suitably designed for carrying puppies or small pets!

So we made our own. We constructed our first puppy carrier for our own puppy from an old pullover hoodie sweatshirt. Not suprisingly, our puppy loved it. Whether we were at Starbucks sipping a latte', or having dinner or lunch at an outdoor cafe, he loved getting into his pouch and snuggling while we enjoyed our meal or coffee. We also found that our puppy was quite content to be carried in his pouch while we strolled the boardwalk at the beach or walked through local malls.

And we noticed something else. A puppy in a puppy pouch sweatshirt created a lot of excitement. Of course, everyone wanted to pet the cute little puppy who's face popped-out from the kangaroo-like pouch. But our puppy carrier sweatshirt itself stirred incredible interest and curiosity.

It seemed that people who owned small pets needed only to see our puppy in his pouch ...and they became intrigued with the idea of carrying their pet in their clothing. The functionality of our pet carrier sweatshirts was immediately apparent to pet owners whose small pet tires quickly during morning walks or simply needs a safe place to snuggle while their master goes about their business.

So the moral to this story is simple. If you discover a solution to a pet problem that no one else has addressed, you may find yourself providing the solution if it is going to happen at all. As a business associate of mine is fond of saying: If it is to be ...it's up to you!