The wand Pusur got for Christmas broke the second day, so I wanted to repair it. But before I got that far, I picked up a ribbon from a gift wrapping and attached that to the wand. Worked really well.

One wand (mine is 20 inches long and plastic, but can be other materials)
One silk ribbon. Mine is red, 1.5 cm in width and 33 inches long as it hangs off the end of the wand
Duct tape to secure the ribbon

The wand with the ribbon works very much like the cat charmer. The cat charmer is better (multicolor striped fleece, ultra light), but this is much better than any DIY wand I’ve tried before (sisal rope). What is better about the DIY wand is that it’s sturdy (Pusur has almost chewed off the end of the cat charmer ribbon), and you can replace the ribbon if your cat is the destructive sort.

So, where do you get the wand? Maybe you have a broken cat toy? If you don’t, look for branches off bushes or trees that work. I’ve had one I cut off a lilac bush for quite a while. They’re easier to skin during spring. If you have ideas for other ways to get wands, DIY, please let me know.

Send me an e-mail if you comment here. I get so much spam, the legitimate comments are hard to spot.

I wanted to give my cat a toy for Christmas, but I knew he was easily bored, and it would take a very special toy to get him excited.

I finally found something I thought would work. It looks a lot like this wand.

It’s a wand with what looks like a long Christmas tree wreath. It’s plastic, with hot pink center and white tips. The wreath is built with a metal thread, so it wafts lazily, a bit like a cat’s tail. And the tip of the wreath has a few feathers with what I’d describe as a light weight. That way, the action is just right. And IT RUSTLES!!!!!

Pusur went wild.

And since he usually goes wild Christmas Eve with all the gift wrappings, I combined the wand with the paper. Instant hit. No risk of me getting clawed by accident, and the rustling combined with the rustling paper got him all worked up.

Poor guy didn’t want to get to bed. He kep looking at me late at night, hoping I’d come up with more fun…

If you want to buy your cat a toy like that, beware if your cat is the destructive type. The metal thread and plastic doesn’t taste that good. In fact, Pusur lets go quickly. He’s not the destructive type. He can keep toys for years without ruining them. But if yours is destructive, be careful exactly what materials, and how sturdy the wand is.

Update: The wand broke the second day, after I wrote this entry. Not because the cat is destructive, but because the wreath was made with metal thread. Metal that thin has a tendency to weaken if you twirl it around too much. A weakness in the design, would be my guess. I’m thinking of repairing it, and putting something else between the metal thread and the wand, to shore up the place where it would break a second time. Maybe a piece of string. But in the mean time, I accidentally made another wand out of a piece of ribbon and the wand.

Pusur caught and killed a bird and a mouse during the night. He ate the mice, and left the bird a little messed up (doesn’t like the taste apparently). Even so, he was ravenous when he pounded on the door this morning at 6 AM.

But today he can hardly keep his eyes open, he’s so pooped…

My cousin is considering getting a toy dog or a cat (hopefully two cats). I’m trying to talk her into getting a cat instead of a dog, because I know an indoors cat will fit better into her life.

I’ve been sending her links whenever I find them, but it’s probably a better idea to gather the links here, and then let her (and others) find them instead of sending several e-mails a day…

I’ll add more links here as I come across them.

Cats and spending wisely

I found some really nice cats here:
Dyrenett. A bengal and a Birma up for adoption, for free!

Couz, this is how good cats do NOT behave:
Pusur/Garfield comic of the day

Blogs and sites by pets

New Speck’s little blog A very technology oriented cat. I guess he’s learning from his pet.

This link was a gift from a friend. A bit of humor:
Handles on kittens

My cat is a little moody. Mostly it’s just being a cat.

But sometimes I wonder.

Some days he REALLY loves me. Today is one of those days. Which makes me wonder - why does he love me so much more today?

He SMILES at me, with those adoring eyes…

Maybe he’s had a quarrel with Boots? Or something’s been scary outside?

Anyway, I don’t have to worry he will leave me. He truly feels like this is the home for him!

My cat was seen snacking on a mouse yesterday.

Today I was gone most of the day, and Pusur didn’t get as many hours outside as he thinks he deserves. He’s very perturbed, and very insistent that he wants to go outside again.

I see a definite shift in his psyche, towards being a predator.

I swept a toy on an elastic string along the floor (about the size as a big stripey mouse), and his attacks on it were very predatorial, and also acrobatic.

He’s doing backflips as high as his slightly corpulent body can manage. This from the homebody who could hardly be bothered to chase a feather a few weeks ago.

Spring fever is here…

I’ve been wondering about Pusur’s undercoat for some time.

He’s probably 1/4 Norwegian Forest Cat. Don’t know about the rest.

To look at, he’s pure Norwegian Forest Cat, until you get closer.

His undercoat is wavy!!!!

Which means his tail is the fluffiest I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t have much of an overcoat, but what there is of it is straight and shiny. Like it’s supposed to be. But there’s so little of it, he gets soaked to the skin when he’s outside in rainy wheather. He loves being rubbed with one of those really absorbent towels for dogs. Will roll over so we can get at his other side.

And of course, his nose has a little bend on it.

But where did he get that wavy undercoat? I really want to know?

There’s also a darker spot under his chin, that darkened with age. As though there’s some Himalayan in him? His behavior is typical NFO, though. Heavy and not too fond of heights.

Also, his coat doesn’t get mats. He’d have to roll in tree sap to get mats, it doesn’t happen on its own.

My Pusur is a little height challenged. He gets insecure about how to get down again. I’ve got a tall pole leaned up against a book case, but getting down requires so much thought, he doesn’t use it unless he’s really in a mischievous mood. And mainly when I’m close enough so I can see him, either directly or in the mirror. He likes to scratch halfway up that thing, though. Really getting his weight involved.

But I’ve wanted a real cat tree for him for some time. And my local zoo store had one of these in the window, marked down to a very good price for Norway:

Cat Fiesta

Since he’s height challenged, I figured, why not. He wouldn’t like a really tall one that’s wobbly anyway.

So I bought it, brought it home and started shaking the bottle of cat dope. I had to boost him up to the top shelf, but he was carrying on, and almost fell off once. After doing that the second day, and boosting him up a few more times, he’d figured out it wasn’t hard to jump down from, considering I’d arranged it in stepladder fashion.

Last last night (late second day it was here), I noticed him at the top of the cat tree, intently looking out. He’d figured out he had a good view from up there. Much better than his old perch. Same direction, different window. Now, day three, he usually jumps up on the new cat tree to do lookout, and uses the old one to snooze.

I’d say, for him, that’s a very successful introduction of a cat tree. He even seems to prefer the new one for scratching!

I’ll try to get a photo of him soon.

BTW, he’s so big he prefers the diagonal. And if he were to fall asleep up there, he’d risk falling off! This one DOES have bigger perches than the old one, though. The old one now has a cat bed with sides perched on top, so he won’t fall off. And he’s so big a lot of him is bulging out of the cat bed on top there. Oh well, come hunting season, he’ll slim right on down…

I bought a sofa cushion at Ikea. Put it in the trunk of my car, then took it home. I left it in the entry for a few hours, and the cat came to investigate.

And promptly went nuts.

I don’t know what was in that cushion, but he behaved almost like it had been sprayed with catnip.

So, what was in that thing?

I’ve bought several toys for Pusur, thinking I’ll give it to him for Christmas. But every time, I end up giving it to him right away. I just can’t wait!

So, this Christmas, I’d figured it out!

We had this big family production at a cousin’s house. And Pusur couldn’t come, since he has an anxiety problem when travelling.

Poor Pusur was alone all of Christmas Eve, until we came back around midnight.

But I’d planned ahead. I’d told everybody about the cat waiting at home, and how I’d planned on giving him a treat. So my uncle kept balling up the paper and putting it in a plastic bag each time somebody’d opened a present. A big black trash bag that ended up pretty full!

So when I got home, I took out all that paper (the pile of presents was pretty huge this year, and many LAARGE ones too). It ended up this gigantic mound of paper. And then the project was to get Pusur to understand how fun this was. I’m not sure he remembered much from last year, but it didn’t take him long to get in the swing of things.

I started up putting him on the outskirts of the mound and piling some paper on top of him and rustling is a bit. Not much of a reaction. Then, as he started moving around, I started pulling paper away that was UNDERNEATH him! My, that was might strange. Istant kitten behavior. I kept going with a DV camera in one hand and pulling paper with the other. Pusur got more and more agitated.

But I had this gigantic mound sitting there, and I wanted Pusur to DIVE into that thing. Soooo….

I brought out the cat nip spray…

Pusur knows what that is, and I found some green silky tissue paper in the middle of the mound and sprayed it. After some initial confusion, he started getting in there, rolling around intoxicated.

And then we started playing again. The green paper resurfaced a few times, and each time he got more agitated, rolling around on that green stuff.

Then finally, he wondered off to get some food.

And me, thinking he was tired of playing, but the stuff away and went on to talk to the folks. Then I hear some prancing out in the hallway. I’d left a few strands of bows and a few scraps of paper, and Pusur, still strung out, is trying to make his own fun with that stuff. So I go out there and find a little piece of paper, and put it on top of his back.

Would you believe he managed to keep that thing on him for at least 10 minutes? All the while hoping I’d bring out the paper and play with him again? Putting it away had been quite a chore, so he’ll have to wait until tonight until I bring it out again, but Pusur was still hoping.

Eventually I tired of the photographing, and went into the living room, keeping an occasional eye on Pusur. After a while I hear him rustle. He’s on his hind legs, nosing into the plastic bag. When I look back at him, he loses his courage… If I hadn’t? I’m sure he would have tipped it over and started getting the paper out.

Moral?

Not a thing, except, a cat or two and lots of present paper and a human to help out? Extremely fun for most cats!