The inspiration for Cardi Hardy, Chewy is a blue merle Cardigan Welsh corgi. Chewy loves to chew, guard the house, and hunt rabbits (thankfully he hasn't hurt one yet, I don't know what I'd do!!).
Like all Cardis, Chewy has a long beautiful tail. His unique coat is a signature Cardigan attribute. While the merle gene is present in other breeds (ie Aussies and Daschunds), it gene is not found in purebred Pembrokes. That's one way you can tell them apart!
Tato is a red Pembroke Welsh corgi. He's the most athletic dog EVER, completely obsessed with ball. Also an expert food sniper.
Despite being a couple months older, Tato is a little smaller than Chewy. Pembrokes are generally 5-10 pounds lighter than Cardigans.
I sold my first t-shirt in 5th grade, as part of a Girl Scout badge project (with the help of my mom who was, and still is, AWESOME).
The year was 1999 and Y2K was a Thing. I was big into cats back then, notsomuch a dog person.
The shirts featured an awkward scribble of a menacing fang-toothed cat paired with the snappy headline, "The millennium is coming, is your cat prepared?”
A pet store in the local strip mall agreed to sell the tshirts and so we printed up several dozen. I don’t remember how many actually sold, but the total was probably closer to 1X than 2K. Big win for the Salvation Army.
Fast forward two decades and my illustration skills have not improved, but Adobe’s product suite has. Years of graphic design and yards of athleisure apparel have led up to this: a new line of graphic tees, decorated with dog drawings and snarky (erm, “snappy") sayings.
I'll be stoked if you buy my stuff, especially since the proceeds go to caring for my corgs. And shout out to my Mom for always supporting me, my dreams, and my pets.