Schools out. Check!
Back from vacation. Check!
Summer is here. Check!
You know what this means?!
I'M BACK!!!!
And it is good to be back.
Today I was going through emails and this one just totally made me chuckle, for those of us who are cat people ( I am animal people, I love them ALL) this will ring especially true. I just had to share.
The Original
No-sew pet bed. If my hedgehog would use it I would be ALL over that. However she is a diva and would just stick her nose up at me (literally).
Well Mary Beth tried this out for her feisty feline....and this is how it turned out, check it out!
The Pinstrosity
Why is it that you lovingly make things/buy things for your pet and they refuse to follow through with a proper thank you and use it. Because they know we will still love them that's why.
Here is what Mary Beth had to say about it, and I thought this was a funny story so enjoy!
"Way back in February, we added Ikea's Hemnes 5-drawer chest to our bedroom for additional storage. It's a little over 4' tall, and Weasley likes to climb on top of it, stretch out and sleep.
Let me preface this next part with the fact that I've been watching a significant amount of My Cat from Hell on Animal Planet lately. If you haven't seen it, it's like the dog whisperer for cats. This tatto-ed, convertible-driving, guitar-carrying guy named Jackson Galaxy (Yes, Jackson Galaxy. I can't make this up.) visits people with problem cats, and after weeks of therapy, the problem cats become beloved family pets. 90% of the time, the cat's bad behavior seems to boil down to the fact that the cat feels confined and limited, and giving it more space to play and explore turns things around completely. There was this one episode in particular where a couple had their cat confined to one room and it would hide and scratch and bite and pee all over everything, but when they let it out into the rest of the house and built a series of steps so it could roam around on high shelves, all their problems were solved.
Obviously, in the wake of viewing that episode, I decided that the best way to stop Weasley from annoying the crap out of us every morning by batting incessantly at the blinds was to make it nice and cozy for him to sleep up high on top of the chest of drawers.
Now, I'm looking extra silly because that link clearly provides easy-to-follow directions for making one of these correctly. You'll just have to believe me when I say I could only find a picture (not directions) when I decided to undertake this project a few weeks ago.
Directions or not, it seemed pretty simple. I found tons of ideas for making no-sew fleece blankets on Pinterest using two pieces of fleece, so I figured I'd just do that and stuff batting between the two layers before finishing off the final side...
So, back to my pet bed. What went wrong?
- My method was easy and successful enough, but obviously, I didn't size this correctly. My intention was to make a pillow that was the same size as the chest of drawers, so I started by laying my material on the top of the chest and cutting a rectangle of the same size. What I didn't realize is that I should have added 3-4" on each side for the fringe, which wouldn't add dimension to the pillow once it was stuffed. The result? Instead of a cat bed specially made to fit on top of the chest of drawers, I wound up with something more like a mini throw pillow. But even if I'd made it the correct dimensions, this still would have been a failure, which brings me to point #2 . . .
- Cats are butt holes. They do what they want. And obviously Weasley does not want to sleep on top of the cozy, snuggly cat bed I made especially for him.
Witness Weasley precariously positioning himself so close to the edge of the chest that two of his legs are falling off just so he doesn't have to touch the offensive cat bed."
Did I mention how much I laughed when she said cats are butt holes? Probably too much, but I have had lots of cats and that just fit too purrrfectly. ;)
This just goes to show, if you make it, they may or may not come depending on their mood that day/hour.
Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps!!!
Also if you missed Marquette's Mix It Up Monday I think you will thoroughly enjoy it. It's a big and little announcement for one the Pinstrositeers! Check it out!!
I love My Cat From Hell and watch it all of the time. I've also made pillows for my cat which he occasionally uses, but usually end up on the floor.
ReplyDeleteI think that this one may have a little too much stuffing in it though? Take a some out and your cat might like it more. They don't always like puffy pillows. Well, mine doesn't anyway. Just a thought.
Put the offensive bed in a cupboard or under your bed. It'll get a lot more use when he's "not supposed" to use it!
ReplyDeleteThis gave me a good chuckle. Also reminded me of "my" cat, Nipper. "My" meaning she has latched onto my daughter now instead. And she's true to her name, she nips if she doesn't like you lol.
ReplyDeleteA little over a year ago, my daughter became badly ill. That's when Nipper started stalking her, sleeping in bed with her. After a while, if you couldn't find the cat, she was sleeping on Josie's blanket in bed. So we decided to buy her a soft cat bed to place on my daughter's bed.
Still, she slept on the blanket folded neatly next to Josie's head. So I had a clever idea, move the blanket INTO the cat bed. And it worked like a charm! In fact now, she will sleep in the bed without the blanket, but only if the bed is next to my daughter's head lol.
Obviously that idea won't work if the cat's preferred sleeping area is on top of something solid and hard. But if you notice they have an attachment to a blanket, such as Nipper, you can transition them away from it as we did. Not that we were trying to get her off the blanket, we were just spoiling the cat.
(coincidentally, Nipper refuses to enough sniff out the cat hut toy thing I bought her haha)
Totally something our cats would do!
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when I saw the first picture. Fleece tied around (batting to make a dog bed? My dogs (or should I say now - my parent's dogs) would destroy that trying to get comfortable.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, you really have to use reverse psychology on cats. Finicky little butts, they are.
Just tell the cat not to sleep on it, that should solve the problem. My cats ONLY sleep on things we do not want them to.
ReplyDeleteYes cats can be a-holes if they want. I can tell you both of mine would not sleep on a pillow however they love to sleep on a flat piece of fleece. Just cut a piece slightly bigger than the dresser and throw it on top. No sewing required. Depending on how the cat gets to the top of the dresser (say by jumping)it could present a slippage factor so keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteI actually know Mary Beth, and when she posted about this back in March I was cracking up because I felt like I was on this site!!!
ReplyDeleteyou can still make this work!
ReplyDelete1) Willow is right, take some of the stuffing out. Cats have very sensitive balance so a puffy bed may make them nervous.
2) Sprinkle a little cat nip on it so attract Weasley to it! I work at a pet store and we suggest this all of the time. It helps them to know that space is theirs and that you're not trying to put something there to keep them off.
I would take some of the fluff out. It'll make it look more like a bed and less like something that you're trying to use to block him.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd sprinkle some cat nip on the bed so he knows that it's his and it's ok for him to go there.
Cat's want to be where you don't want them. They just want to make sure we dumb humans know who's really in charge!
ReplyDeleteIt's always discouraging to make/buy a luxury cat bed only for the furry little oddballs to find a favorite sleeping spot balanced on a tiny ledge or behind the toilet. One of mine has actually figured out how to open the kitchen cupboard and sleep inside my rice cooker... I need a child lock.
ReplyDeletePretend he can't sleep on it, and he will. Since cats are, in fact, buttholes. :)
ReplyDeleteThe picture shown in the pin actually came from a pattern for sale by one of the big pattern companies (McCalls?). I bought the pattern specifically to get the dimensions to make sure that I could have it in a size that would work for my puppy. I have yet to actually make it, but when she was in a cast, we were going through doggie beds like crazy since she'd mess on them or chew them up. I figured a home-made one could be easily fixed compared to the store-bought ones...
ReplyDeleteI just finished making two of these adorable cat pillows yesterday and I love them. My cat, Maggie...not so much. One pillow fit perfectly on her cat perch by the window... she boycotted the perch until I removed the offensive item! I put one in her cat bed...well, that's just fine if she doesn't like them, I do!
ReplyDeletei used this pin to make a floor pillow for my best friend while she was pregnant. It never made it to the baby because the dog to a liking to it and eventually destoried it in the month before the baby was born
ReplyDelete