Crafty Critters

Pumpkin Dogs!

Joy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:55:30 GMT

You don't have to be a fairy godmother to turn your dog into a pumpkin! Just download one of these amazing templates from Better Homes and Gardens to guide you through carving your pumpkin into a beagle, boxer, bulldog, chihuahua, dachshund, German shepherd, golden retriever, Jack Russell, Lab, poodle, pug, Scotty or Yorkie. They're also accepting suggestions for additional templates to be added next year. How about some kitties?! Go to bhg.com/dogs

Insulated Water Bottle Tote

Joy — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:08:36 GMT

Debbie Colgrove of Sewing.About.com has lots of great free patterns on her site, including one for various sizes of Insulated Water Bottle Totes.

This pattern was quite easy. Jeans legs were too narrow for the 25-ounce tote I wanted to make, so I dug a skirt out of my stash and used one of the panels. I always have quilt batting and elastic on hand, so this project cost me nothing!

I couldn't find a decent compass in my office supplies to make the circles for the bottom, so I went to my scrapbooking supplies and used a circle cutter to make a tagboard template.

I've already taken it on a hike and it works great!

In Her Spare Time

Joy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:13:36 GMT

This isn't a pattern for pets, but it's so stunning that I just had to share.

Liz Finch, manager of Best Friends' Community Animal Assistance department has a very busy job and a number of animals she cares for. She only learned to knit a couple of years ago, but she quickly became very accomplished.

Liz recently finished the most gorgeous shawl, and it's featured on the blog of The Cozy Ewe, the local Kanab knitting shop.

http://thecozyeweblog.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

Be sure to click on the photo to see the closeup!

Resources

admin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:06:59 GMT

Documents

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Building for our Buddies

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Crochet

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Sew Perfect

Joy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:12:14 GMT

Homemade toys and beds help shelter animals get adopted

By Sandy Miller

Thanks to some wonderful volunteers with a talent for sewing and crocheting, some shelter animals are a little more comfortable while waiting for their forever homes.

Alice O’Neil rarely goes anywhere without a ball or two of yarn and a pair of crochet hooks. That’s how she made 2,500 cat toys last year alone. She crochets the colorful toy balls and mice in doctors’ waiting rooms, on trips, while watching TV. And when she’s not making toys, she’s sewing up “cage comforters” – soft beds for shelter animals to curl up on.

The seed for what would become the Cage Comforter program was planted nine years ago when O’Neil paid a visit to a New York City shelter. She went home that day with a little 10-year-old partially blind dog. She named him J.J. and he would bring her much joy over the next nine years.

But she couldn’t get the other animals at the shelter out of her mind. “I wanted to do something for them,” O’Neil says. “I couldn’t adopt them all, but maybe I could do some little thing that would brighten their time there.”

O’Neil contacted the volunteer coordinator at Animal Care and Control of New York City. Like many people, O’Neil found it emotionally difficult to go inside shelters. She was looking for a way she could help shelter animals from her home.

The volunteer coordinator told her she had been trying to recruit volunteers to make beds and toys for the agency’s shelters in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island.

“I didn’t know how to sew, but thought, ‘How hard could it be?’” O’Neil remembers. “I also liked the idea that if I only made one bed, at my convenience at home, I was doing something concrete to help a homeless animal.”

O’Neil ended up making much more than one bed, and a good number of toys to go with them. She delivered the beds and toys to the Brooklyn shelter herself.

“The transformation in the animals receiving these simple little items was overwhelming,” O’Neil says. “They came from the backs of their cages and jumped on the beds. They completely relaxed.... To think that I was able to have that kind of effect on these animals was amazing to me, and it encouraged me to do more.” O’Neil began recruiting other volunteers, and the Cage Comforter program was born.

The Cage Comforter program is especially appealing to older people who can’t get around like they used to. “Some of the volunteers were shut-ins who had no way of doing volunteer work outside the house, but were thrilled when they found something meaningful to do from home,” O’Neil says.

Not only do the beds and toys make shelter animals more comfortable, they also improve their chances for adoption. They reduce the stress the animals feel while in a cage, and they allow potential adopters to more easily see the pets as part of their homes and lives.

O’Neil ran the program until she moved to Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, after retiring from her job as the housing administrator for the New York City Housing Authority. She continues to make beds and toys for the New York City shelters, as well as her local shelter. And she has helped others to start similar programs at their own local shelters.

Nancy Calegari now coordinates the Cage Comforter program. She has nine regular volunteers who sew beds and toys for animals in New York City shelters, and other volunteers who contribute occasionally. One of those volunteers is Wilma Farrell of Evans City, Pennsylvania. She spends a lot of her time sewing snuggly beds on her Viking sewing machine. Farrell lives on a very limited income with her cat in a small efficiency apartment, but she still manages to find the fabric and other materials needed to make beds for the Cage Comforter program. “I have a collection of odds-and-ends fabric that people keep giving me,” Farrell says.

Marianne Crawford is retired and lives with her daughter in Centreville, Virginia. She’s been making cat toys for the animals in New York City shelters for seven years. “Making them for the poor kitties in the shelters is very rewarding,” Crawford says. “I feel as though I make them happy, if just for a few moments, a day, or weeks. I get pictures of the cats with my toys, which brings a smile to my face. This alone makes me want to do more.”

Calegari says, “What impresses me most about the volunteers who sew and knit is their devotion. Many have been sending us these beds and toys for years on a regular basis. They buy the supplies themselves and pay the postage. They are truly devoted to these homeless cats and dogs. They ask nothing in return.”

For more information on the Cage Comforter program,
go to nycacc.org/cagecomforters.htm or pleasebekind.com/ccp.html.

Posted with permission from Best Friends magazine by Joy Moffat

RE: RE: Cardboard Cat Playhouse

marys — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:08:51 GMT

Way cute!

RE: RE: RE: RE: Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

atuttle32 — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:00:39 GMT

I'll have to try putting treats in them, too. It would help enrich their lives while they are in the adoption center.

I think I'm going to purchase the little eggs shaped like soccer balls and basketballs today and try those.

RE: RE: RE: Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

bogiedew — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:04:29 GMT

great idea..I am going to do that!

RE: RE: Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

marys — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:28:44 GMT

Cool idea....thanks!

RE: Cardboard Cat Playhouse

pattycatty — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:01:04 GMT

I can't hide this fast enough. If Iris and Mickey see this they will never again. be happy with the odd assorted "windowless" UPS boxes I drag in.

Rescue? : Cardboard Cat Playhouse

Joy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:40:55 GMT

Save those cardboard boxes! Martha Stewart gives step-by-step instructions for turning them into a cat playhouse, which includes door and window templates.

Pat, get out your glue gun!

Once again, thanks to ModernCat.net for this great find.

RE: Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

Joy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:32:36 GMT

Oh, thanks for sharing, Amelia! I do that, too, and I also put treats in them. My kitties love Easter!

RE: Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

carrie_fosters — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 23:14:42 GMT

These are great, Amelia! Better still, they are a "craft" that even I could master, I think. And you can't beat the price.

Holiday Crafts : Inexpensive, Catnip Easter Eggs

atuttle32 — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:47:38 GMT

I keep forgetting to take a picture of one of these, but I think the picture above will do. I purchase the small, hinged plastic easter eggs at the drugstore (about 20-30 for $.99). There are tiny holes at each end of the egg.

You open them up, sprinkle about a teaspoon or so of catnip inside, close them, and hand them out to the kitties.

I've done this for the past three years for the cats in the adoption center at PetSmart, and they love them! They are hard to pop open, and most cats love knocking them all over, and it's a little bit of an attention grabber, too, which is what we need in the adoption center! Sometimes I use the larger eggs, but the kitties seem to enjoy the smaller ones - especially on the tile floor!

Anyway, just thought I'd share.
Happy Easter!
Amelia

RE: RE: Suitcase Pet Bed

marys — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:19:06 GMT

Cute idea, very clever, but.......I cringe at the thought of any children around; any animal-hating men that are jealous....you get the idea. Beware! Now, the litter box idea is a gem.....when company comes, you just close the lid! (I'm bad).

RE: Suitcase Pet Bed

Joy — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:41:28 GMT

Instructions can be found by clicking here and scrolling down.

Operation Happy Sock Revisited

Joy — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:08:31 GMT

Get your organization involved with Operation Happy Sock!

Best Friends volunteers Rick and Sarah McDonald have been kind enough to post to the Virginia community about Operation Happy Sock. Included in their article is updated contact info and the exciting news that Operation Happy Sock now has a blog!

I'm including the new contact information here, and I've also updated it on last year's article.

happysock@verizon.net
www.operationhappysock.org
Operation Happy Sock Blog

Posted by Joy Moffat, Best Friends Staff

RE: RE: RE: Seamstress Being Stalked

muincat — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:42:20 GMT

I thought about signing up, but I'm just barely learning to sew. I figure I'll wait until I have a better grasp on things. I DID download her free patterns though...

Homemade Piggy Fashion

Joy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 23:35:28 GMT

Elegant pig jackets!

A clever member has gone hog wild for our potbellied pigs and is decking them out in hauge couture!

Read the story at news.bestfriends.org.

Posted by Joy Moffat, Best Friends Staff
Photo of Naniui by Gary Kalpakoff

RE: RE: Seamstress Being Stalked

Joy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:21:12 GMT

Her purse designs are amazing. I recommend subscribing to her monthly e-newsletter which is full of great designs and always includes cute cat-related videos and quotes.