With the mercury plummeting to well below freezing here in chilly Chengdu and our first big batch of rescued bears due to arrive in Vietnam any time now, our vet team has a very special request – we need warm paw mittens for our bears. When the bears are anaesthetised and brought in to the surgery for check-ups it’s important that we keep them warm and comfortable with a temperature of around 37 degrees C. So if any of you out there are handy with a pair of knitting needles, you may like to get creative and help to keep our lovely bears’ paws warm and toasty.

Sorry, we don’t have a knitting pattern, but here’s a picture of a typical paw print. 

Allowing for some breathing space and the bears’ sizable claws, the length should be about 30cm (12 inches) and the width at the widest part of the paw pad, 18cm (7 inches). No fingers, thumbs or toes please! Oh, and the mittens will need to be machine-washable and able to withstand a clothes dryer without shrinking.

You can send your mittens to our office address in your country (see the “contact us” webpage).

Thanks in advance and happy clicking!