What’s cuter than a puppy? Or cuter than a kitten? How about bow ties? Yes, put a puppy or kitten in a bow tie and they get exponentially cuter. You’d think that bow ties and animal adoptions are two completely unrelated things? That isn’t the case. In fact, the two are so inexplicably linked by 12-year-old Darius Brown.
Brown refers to himself as Sir Darius Brown, and said, “Literally everywhere I go, I wear a bow tie.” Brown was diagnosed at age two with speech, comprehension, and fine motor skills delays. However, helping his older sister seemed to help him. By this point, he was eight years old and his sister was making hair bows for cosmetology school.
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“With his fine motor skills, he wasn’t able to really use his hands well – tying a shoe was challenging,” his sister said. “My mother and I came up with the idea that if he helped us with things like prepping the ribbon or cutting it, and sewing fabric together, it would help him. And it did – it worked!”
Once he had mastered the bow tie, he started making them for himself, and thus Sir Darius was born. But, he didn’t stop there. He couldn’t help but think of the animals he cared so much about. So, he started making dogs in shelters bow ties as well.
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“It helps the dog look noticeable, very attractive,” Brown says. “It helps them find a forever, loving home… I love everything about dogs and cats.”
But he couldn’t have done it without the help of hundreds of kind strangers who donated material. “The donations help a lot because we were just digging in our pockets, buying the fabric ourselves,” said his mom. His work even reached the eyes of one Barack Obama, who sent him a personal note last year.
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