Cat toy - a tale of terror

[Harvestar]

My finace` has 3 cats who love to bat small things around the floor. We both thought this pattern:
http://www.crochetme.com/Feb_Mar_2005/patt_cat_toy.html
would be perfect for them. The cats love catnip, so we planned to include some fresh stuff from our outside plant.

My love is a beginning crocheter, having done several scarves, worked on a blanket, and made an IPod cozy. I went off to the telescope, leaving him at home with the twine we'd bought and the pattern. After phone calls and emails about where the hooks were, I heard nothing for a few hours. Then at midnight, he calls saying in an out-of-breath voice, "NEVER leave me to crochet that at home again. Oh, and don't mind the blood stains on the wall."

:eek

You see, he'd sat down in front of the TV that night to work on the mouse, and, of course, all 3 cats were interested in his work, but just in a curious way. Then, one cat discovered the baggie of catnip stuck in his pocket and tried to cram her head in there while he was still sitting. But she was still only curious.

When he began to stuff the mouse with cotton, mylar, and catnip, then they attacked. All 3 cats tried to fit on his lap at once as he tried to finish crocheting the mouse without poking anyone's eye out. Then one cat grabbed the other end of the mouse with her teeth, digging her claws into his thighs, and pulled, as he's slip stitching. At one point, she rolled off his lap in happiness over the catnip, and tried to hang on. He's still got the scar on his calf.

Poor guy gave up and only made a chain for the tail, no slip stitching.

But the babies love their new toy, and fought over it...

so he had to make another one, but this time, took my advice and made it at a friend's house.

Here's the mouse in its usual state:
http://thorn.as.arizona.edu/~kak/Pictures/misc/Crocheting/DSCN4412-sm.JPG

I'd like to make them some more toys, but we'll have to carefully plan times to do them. (like on airplanes, may be...)

[Sabra]

:rofl I used to have a cat who routinely showcased his affection by biting me. His name is Dmitrii (gave him to my mother), but we called him OW the Cat from a young age. So I can identify with being in pain to make a cat happy. Your poor fiance, though!

[unicorn37757]

I'm sorry, I know this wasn't funny if you were on the receiving end but i got a kick out of it! I can just see my cats doing that! I'm going to have try making a few for our kittens & cats as I need to dry some of our catnip before the coming winter ends it for the year!:eek

[sunshine1977]

:laughroll:laughroll:laughroll:rofl:rofl:rofl... Bless his heart - I commend him for keeping at it through all the commotion!!

Laurie:hook

[marymac]

That's hilarious...and sounds so much like my house! 3 cats here, too, and I wouldn't DARE to do this! Thanks for the laugh this morning, hope the scars are healing!

[carrieanne]

Thats so funny! Sounds like it was a giant CAT PARTY, LOL!

[crochettreasures]

That is just too funny. Poor fiancee though.

-lesson learned though. I would have just let the cats have the nip. Then they could get their fix and go to sleep LOL. At least that is what our fatty does :)

[crochetlady100]

The cat sound like they had a great time. When I make my cat toys I dont take out the catnip until I am ready for it. Also, I can not crochet on the couch I have to crochet at the counter because doing crochet around a cat usually doesnt get the job done. My spoiled pretty cat, loves to play with the yarn as I am working on it, so as I am working I have to stop and get the yarn away from her. Some cats like to play with yarn balls, but I can not give them to mine, when she was a kitten I was crochet and left the yarn on the counter to check on dinner, she climbed up in my counter chair and eat the yarn, when I ran over to her I had to pull the yarn out of her mouth and throat, the yarn that came out was around a foot long. Since then she can not be near yarn unless I am right there.
Trish

[FelixLake]

Sorry, but I just had to laugh too. I have 3 cats and 2 of them just love to 'help' me crochet. Last night I had to frog a section (for the 4th time) of an afghan I'm working on and one of the cats sat next to me on the couch attacking the yarn. The problem was, my leg was under the yarn.

[yarncat]

OW!!

[sissymamma]

:eek Your poor man!
But at the same time :rofl !

We have two cats here, so I can picture the carnage that broke loose! Oh, what we do for love!

[MarvieN]

We have four cats... I can so picture what you described lol.

I recently made them a mouse too. I made all the parts, sewed it all together, got out the nip and took it in the bedroom.... pushing the cats out of the way as I shut the door. Then I listened to four cats pitch a fit till I had the nip stuffed in and the behind sewed shut lol. They played with it for a few days, but it's MIA... probably under a couch or fridge at this point. I haven't gone on a toy hunt in a while lol. We have a special metal rod that is the perfect size to sweep under even the widest couch and rake toys out. Whenever we do a toy hunt we are always well supervised and the amount of plastic eggs and mice we find is outrageous lol. I have a basket on the floor where they are all kept and the cats just dig them out as they want them, when the basket is empty someone has to do the hunt lol

Hope your man is healing *g* It seems like all his hard work was worth it though, your babies obviously adore their new toy =)

[faithpa76]

OMG your poor guy but OMG that is hysterical! I can sooooo picture that one! :lol

[CrochetRT]

I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time but I was laughing so hard when I read this I was in tears! :rofl I can so picture my kitty doing that!!!:cat

[mamaoso]

:eek The poor guy.. But had to :rofl .Miss Kittie would have been the same way..She is so hyper :hyper

[DesertCrocheter]

:laughroll I feel your pain, literally. I have 3 cats, but thankfully none seem to be into the catnip; I'm not sure why. But 2 do like to mouth the yarn while I'm crocheting sometimes. Right now my entire right hand is scratched up from trying to work on the slow process of getting my new girl used to being groomed. Poor finace! He certainly earned good hubby points sticking to that project inthe face of the terror and bloodshed! Patty

[whitedtu]

:mouse (misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=90#) got to love those kittys:cat:lol (misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=1&forumid=90#)

[Harvestar]

:) Thanks, I still chuckle about it, as does he. (and he's learned his lesson ;) )

MarvieN, we also have the "toy hunt" around here - and use one of the old featherless sticks to fish the toys out. (which of course, draws great attention!)

[MarvieN]

hehehe yeah, we get ots of attention when we brig out the toy fetcher lol.

We used to keep the feather on a stick toy above the TV on the entertainment center, in a long skinny shelf none of them could get into. Well it got to the point where every time anyone's hand went anywhere near that shelf, whichever cat was in the room would (of course) notice it and send out some psycic signal bc the others would soon arrive on the scene lol. This happened even when I was just dusting or putting something on top of the entertainment center lol

We now keep it in a closet ;)

[eyrthmother1]

lol. I had to laugh at this also. I used to own a cat that was odd and not very much into catnip, she passed away last year. I have friends who have cats though and was recently at 1 of their houses. I didn't think about having a small bag of catnip in my bag where I'd been making some cattoys for a local shelter. My friends and I were busy busy and suddenly heard, "MMMMEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWW", lots of scratching noises, "mmmmmeeeeewwwww", more scratching...a bit of hissing (2 cats) etc. We were finally able to get over to where the sounds were, and the cats had been IN my bag, FOUND the catnip, and had the plastic bag torn to smitherines. The 2 cats were OH SO glassy eyed, was so funny. Thought of giving them 1 of the cattoys, to enjoy :D

Sandy

[TamKing]

Oh my...that is just TOO funny! I can totally relate since I had the idea to make the very same thing for my cat and she was in my face when I was trying to stuff the toy with catnip.
But on the serious side, he did a terric job on it and the cat looks quite content with his new toy!!! :hook

[lhasaapsolady]

great job, that cat sure looks as if he's enjoying himself.

[Chrome Kitty]

Such devotion! :yarn

[theworm]

Your poor Honey!!!
Well, the cats are happy, and you have a man who loves crochet, cats and you! How lucky!!

[Ladycrochat]

meOW! Poor guy! It is funny:lol picturing it, but I am sure that he wasn't having fun at the time!:blush Still nothing like knowing your project is wanted and loved! LOL:haha !

[Harvestar]

Thanks everyone!
:)

He did finally make a third one too, so all the cats have one. We occasionally rub fresh catnip on the mice and they love that. :)

My love tied a mouse to a shoelace yesterday and it became the new "favorite toy". Ashel still loves her mouse. :)

(and they've held up really well against kitty claws and bites)

[InStitches]

I won't lie...that's pretty funny...but simply because I've been there, I have 3cats! Unfortunately we all have to learn the hard way sometimes.