Need some help with today's NYT Strands? Today's theme, “For Our Furry Friends,” is pretty clear, but that doesn't mean you can find all the answers without a little help.

Below are some helpful hints and what-if answers for Strands #262. We'll start with a few tips to help you get the full answer to Strands #262.

WARNING: There are spoilers for Strands #262.

The official theme of NYT Strands #262 is... “For Our Furry Friends.”

And here's an unofficial tip from me: “Shopping Lists for Livestock.”

If you're still not sure, here are some valuable hint words. Spangram gives us a hint on conjunctions. Today it starts with “P” and ends with “S.”

Scroll down to see what it is.

PETSUPPLIES.

Now, what is the answer to the strand in today's game #262?

Drumroll please.

... Spangram was PETSUPPLIES.

Strands #262

“For our furry friends”

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Hello Strands fans! Nothing too difficult today; the theme “For our furry friends” instantly made me think of all the different things our cats enjoy doing, as evidenced (with dogs in the mix, of course).

In fact, it was BONE for dogs that I first discovered before the PETSUPPLIES spangram just below it. These two combined to seal off one for cats and kittens: LITTER.

Then I looked to the lower right and there were three groups: a COLLAR, followed by a CATNIP below it, and a BALL, virtually completing the half.

In the lower left corner two remained wrapped around each other. After playing with the letters for a bit, I solved LASER (my cat is not interested in letters, so I almost missed it). The rest of the puzzle was completed by KIBBLE.

Are you reading this late in the day? Yesterday's full article on the solution to Strand's game #261 can be found here.