birdcage style elevated dog bowl holder

My boyfriend and I went to this antique/a-little-too-expensive-only-because-they-only-have-high-quality-furniture "thrift" store a couple of months ago and he purchased a real nice Windsor birdcage chair similar to these:

I had never heard of these kinds of chairs before, but just the fact that the word "birdcage" was in the name stuck with me.

I've been talking about how I'm going to make an elevated dog bowl holder for quite a while now, which said boyfriend reminded me about quite a few times when I failed to actually make it for 2.5 months, so a couple of weekends ago I finally cracked down and made it.  It's made out of old (aka nicely warm colored) pine boards and 3/8" oak dowels which were shellacked and waxed.  It measures 16" x 8.5" x 10", and there was a great debate about whether or not it was too tall or not.  It may be a little too tall... but it's staying this way!  If anything, I'll just make sure my next dog is a couple inches taller...

I've bought hole saws before (a 2.5" and a 4" probably) and they aren't cheap.  A hole saw as big as those bowls probably would've cost me around $80.  I used a really interesting tool to cut those holes - an adjustable hole cutting drill bit (I'm sure that's not it's technical name) that JB probably got for a buck at a flea market.  It's made for metal but.... whatever wood and metal aren't all that different.  Here's a picture of a much cleaner one than the one I used: