Teen Makes Little Bow Ties for Shelter Dogs to Help Them Get Adopted

Darius Brown was just eight years old when his sister, Dazhai taught him how to sew his first bow tie. He proudly wore the Ninja Turtle tie to school the next day. It was such a hit that he began making them for friends.

Fast forward two year, in 2017, he used his hobby to help the most voiceless beings find a home. He found out that hundreds of cats and dogs were left homeless due to Hurricane Irma.

In an attempt to get these precious animals to stand out and get adopted, Brown decided to start making them bow ties.

When some of the rescues were sent to the ASPCA animal shelter in New York City, Brown (a Delaware resident) created and dropped off 25 pet-sized bows.

Now fourteen, he has made and donated over 600 bow ties.

Workers at the shelter say Brown's bow ties have really helped older animals in particular get noticed and adopted.

“We’d never used bow ties before and right away we saw a big difference,” said executive director Lorri Caffrey of Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover, N.J.

Brown is determined to keep making bow ties because of how successful they have become in finding animals a forever home. “I saw how happy the people at the shelter were to get the bow ties and how much the dogs liked them, and I decided to make more,” Brown said. “I came up with a goal to give bow ties to an animal shelter in every state.”