Homemade Gifts : Cats, Dogs and Extras

Lisa's * Everyday Life

Dec 5

This Tuesday iam sharing homemade gifts and safety tips for our four legged family members.

Cat Wand

Materials: wooden dowel, twine, fabric or hot glue, scissors

Optional: Feathers, fabric scraps, bells

Cats can entertain themselves for hours chasing balls of yarn or scratching to their hearts' content, but when you want to play with your furry friend, nothing does the trick like a wand toy.

To make a cat wand, wrap twine around a wooden dowel and leave 10 to 12 inches of twine at the end to dangle. Glue the twine in place at both ends of the dowel. Now comes the fun part. Find some things you can dangle from the end of the wand: feathers, fabric scraps, bells, or other colorful items. Tie or glue them onto the end of the twine and you're ready for playtime! Dangle the toy in front of your furry friend and watch them go crazy

No Sew Pom Poms

Materials: string, fleece, scissors

Pom poms are hugely popular with kitties. They love soft toys they can pounce on, bat, and chew. If you want to give your cat a fun pom pom but don't know how to sew, don't despair. No sewing skills are required for these soft kitty pom poms. All you'll need is string, scissors, and a piece of fleece two inches wide and a foot long. Best of all, you can do this whole project in about 10 minutes.

DIY Dog Toys

Kitchen-Towel Rope

You'll need… an old kitchen towel.

Take your old kitchen towels and put them to good use… finally! Cut two lines along the length of a towel, equidistant from each other (as if you were cutting it into 3 strips) and stop cutting about an inch from the top. Then braid or plat the towel as you would hair. Know the loose ends and you have a great, strong rope toy!

Have big dogs? For an even tougher toy braid three complete kitchen towels together and tie the ends (or sew them). As an alternative, old jeans can be used to make an ever hardier chew rope.

Ball on a Rope

You'll need… a piece of rope and a tennis ball.

Drill or cut a hole in each side of the ball. Pop your rope through it and tie knots either side of the ball to keep it in place. Tie knots at the ends of the rope for extra grip & to reduced fraying. You now have a great tug-of-war toy that is just as good for fetch and general chewing!