One of NPR's most e-mailed stories this week is "Winter Wear Goes to the Dogs", a Morning Edition piece from January 3 on the propensity of pet owners to load human-style coats and footwear on animals once the temperature drops.

The article quotes Portland, Oregon, veterinarian Dr. Christine Fletcher as saying, "We tend to think in terms of what we need and project that onto the animal. Most of us don't really think in terms of what the animal absolutely needs."

About as many folks seem to reserve the fashion runway for inside the house, according to the many sites featuring clothed pets indoors and out. This includes Dogs in Duds, which features dogs in a variety of clothing, on this site and even a companion MySpace page. For the purist, Dogs in Coats sticks to outerwear. Both sites function as photoblogs of sorts, where readers can submit pictures of their pets. (And by the way, if you want a t-shirt that proclaims "I like the look of a dog in a coat", the folks behind Dogs in Coats are happy to oblige.)

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I spotted this little Dachsund on a trip to New York over New Year's. She was over all the foot traffic, that's for sure, but was quite stylish and appeared to know it.

There are 51 photos tagged with "dog coat" on flickr, but (trying really hard to be inclusive here!) only four tagged with "pet coat." Multimedia artist Lenna Andrews has a great site displaying her work, a brand new blog,
and a very cute dog named Asia who occasionally wears a coat, as she is in this shot.

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Awesome London Underground blogger Annie Mole is responsible for the four "pet coat" shots, including this fetching version, made out of subway upholstery (and found here with the rest of her "petcoat" tags)!

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If you really want to know if your dog needs outerwear, the NPR piece instructs to watch for shivering. City dogs are more accustomed to warm houses than their rural friends, and tend to have thinner coats. Care must be taken when walking them on streets that may be covered in chemicals from snow removal.

NPR commentator Ketzel Levine noted in a sidebar that it really is all about the individual animal, since one of her dogs never seems to get cold, while recently-adopted six-year old Beagle Starlet shivers regularly.

"Real dogs do wear coats," says Levine. The trick is to pay attention to yours to see if he needs one or not.

Contributing Editor Laurie White covers pets and photography, and writes her own blog here.