As the title states, I just learned I'm unable to use any custom apparel that a wolf was wearing upon its release. I'm assuming this is a bug. Normally I don't release wolves wearing any apparel, but a few days ago I went on a mass clearing of non-G1 wolves to make room for future WWs. Some of these wolves were wearing Custom Apparel, which I didn't attempt removing because I wasn't aware of any issues at the time, and it felt convenient not having to remove all the items. The items were returned to my inventory as expected, and I went about my life without thinking much of it. This evening, however, I tried to re-use the returned items on another wolf of mine and kept running into the following error: "Item is in use by another lorwolf."

I was a bit confused and re-checked my inventory to make sure that the items I was attempting to use were still there--and they were, as seen here. I was on mobile, so I switched over to my laptop and unfortunately ran into the same issue, which led me to look up the IDs of a few wolves I released that I knew were wearing apparel at the time of release, and those wolves happen to be these three here: Cloudy Skies, Rainy Days, and Cosmos. You'll notice that despite the items appearing in my inventory, the released wolves are still wearing them. The items in my inventory are essentially ghost versions of the item that can't be used unless they're removed from the released wolves.

The released wolves were all G2+. I don't know if this affects WWs, although I can't imagine why it wouldn't. I also tested this with non-CA items on this wolf. I gave the wolf a Butterfly Nose before releasing it, and the nose was not only returned to my inventory but removed from the released wolf as well. I tried clearing my cache to see if the site was getting confused, but that didn't fix the issue.

I should clarify that I'm well aware it's possible to release wolves wearing companions/items, but I have never come across an issue where I receive the item back without actually getting the item's usage back. I'll be submitting a support ticket as well. I'm hopeful I can regain usage of my items somehow, because the following items are unusable despite being in my Custom Apparel inventory & wardrobe:

• Heavenly Skies by august
• Albino Wings by august
• Rose Pink Decor by august
• Bright Dreams of Wisteria by Sucrose
• Nine Grass Flowers by CherriC
• Cloud Nine by Sucrose
• Blue Rosepetals by Sucrose
• Rainbow Mage by LaughingFool
• Moonlight Stroll by SilverLately
• Transgender Pride Flag by RallraxAuri
• Pride Flag by Sadist
• Starfall by Sunlit Fable
• Rainbow Sharks by LaughingFool
• Glowing Rainbow Pawpads by Pandemonium

As you can imagine, that's a lot of Custom Apparel--and by extension--a lot of MS that is now unusable until this is resolved. Any help is appreciated.

For the devs, I'm using Google Chrome Version 117.0.5938.150 (Official Build) (64-bit).

@Lego Thank you so much for the Bug Report and for submitting a Support Ticket soon. I'm incredibly sorry for any frustration. The Bug Index has been updated to include this issue.

I think wolves wearing any apparel should not be able to be released. There needs to be a safeguard for both apparel and also not accidentally releasing wolves we wanted to keep.

As an update, I ran some tests to see how far this bug extends. Purchasing additional copies of the bugged CA allows you to use the un-bugged copies of CA, so the site correctly prioritizes the item that's "not in use." I also traded one of the items with another user, and we found that while the user is able to use the item as normal, I cannot even when it's sent back to me.

Hopefully this provides more insight!

I'd like to update this post with the information that the dev team has acknowledged this issue is a bug, and the items have been restored to my account. I do feel it necessary to mention, however, that this update comes after two support tickets and a private conversation with a moderator requesting that the unanswered support tickets be brought up to the dev team directly. While I am not thrilled with the response time, I'm grateful that I have regained use of my lost items. For clarification purposes, I re-acquired my items on November 2nd, so this thread's update is a few days late.

I am still unsure of whether or not the items were simply restored to my account or if the bug has been fixed; I'm unwilling to test it, and I'm still waiting for further indication from the dev team what exactly has been done.

Again, I'm writing this as an update so anyone concerned about potentially losing items is at least aware that they can be restored!