Enjoy the Toy

Let’s See Where Your Mind Is At

I believe it is important to get regular stimulation for your mind in order to remain sharp as a tack. I know this is true for me. I’ve heard it is true for us as we get older.

But now I’m wondering if it is also true for our pets.

We have lots of toys for our four cats in the house. I like to crochet, so lots of the toys are balls, about as simple as you can get. Make a Magic Ring and do a slip stitch into it. Crochet 6 single crochet stitches into the ring. Pull the Magic Ring closed. Begin the next round by making 2 single crochets into each of the 6 single crochets of the previous round. Stick a piece of yarn or a stitch marker into the first stitch of Round 2 so you can see where the round ends and a new one begins.

Do the same thing for Round 3, making 2 single crochets into each of the 12 stitches. By they you’ve probably got a ball big enough to suit a cat. If you’re doing this for a dog, keep increasing in each stitch.

Once it’s big enough you should single crochet in each stitch the next 1 or 2 rounds. If you do the single crochets for a long time, you will have a hot dog. Once you start decreasing is when the ball begins to start curving back in. To make a decrease you poke the hook through one stitch and then through another to make one single crochet. Leave off when you’ve got a hole big enough that you can start stuffing the toy.

You can use old socks or even underwear to stuff the ball. I’d make sure the underwear is clean, but the socks can be dirty. They will have your scent on them. I suppose you could use dirty underwear, but for some reason, the thought of doing that grosses me out. Anyway, one sock ought to be enough to make eight cat toys. I used a clean one. I always save them at the side of my sock drawer until the mate shows up or I want to make cat toys.

Cut the cloth into small pieces and fill the ball up. If you’ve got polyfill stuffing, you can use that too. I just keep all our mismatched socks, so if the mate ever shows up, we’re set. Otherwise, they are cat toy fodder.

Sometimes I sprinkle catnip liberally into the middle of the ball when it is halfway stuffed. If the toy is for a dog, I’m thinking they probably couldn’t care less. If you’ve got both cats and dogs, I’d go with a generous application of catnip so everybody will enjoy the toy.

You can either close the ball up with your crochet hook or a large-eyed yarn needle if you have one.

Cats, in my experience, get tired of playing with the same toy after a while. Put it in a basket and just tuck it away. Get them a toy they have already gotten tired of playing with and bring it out into the open.

My Molly loves her little Miss Pony. I got it at a yard sale or Good Will for her once a long time ago. It is currently missing. I know it is still here and will someday find it under a chair or behind a table, or maybe even buried in one of their many baskets of toys they are not using now.

The funny thing about cat toys is the cats are equally pleased to play around with apron strings or with a balled-up piece of aluminum foil. They also love Amazon boxes.

The more expensive the toy the faster they will lose interest. It’s like a law.

Stanley loves those little vinyl-covered coils. Every once in a while, I notice they’ve all disappeared. A quick swish around under the refrigerator with a back scratcher and I can snag a bunch of them.

Millie likes sticks with long bits of flannel or a long crocheted chain attached.

They all love when I cut doors and windows out of a big box and turn it upside down.

Our living room reminds me of the houses we lived in when the kids in my family were little, and toys were out everywhere. So, cats, not kids.

When cats grow older, they tend to start winding it down, just like we do. This is when you might want to get a kitten. Within days, your older cat will cotton to the small kitten and begin participating more. This has been how our family has operated all these years. Except now I am giving more and more thought to not increasing the cat family anymore. It’s because we are getting older, and I worry that there will be somebody to care for them if it is time for us to start shuffling off the mortal coil. Sort of a morbid thought, but at our age, I believe it is important.

Seth says, Enjoy the companionship of your animals all you want. They will be there for you when you do eventually shuffle off of this mortal coil. Don’t worry about what will happen to them once you are gone. All will be well. With those assurances, we wish you a delightful and productive day.

Pauline Evanosky is a psychic channel, and no, I can’t tell what you are thinking. I am a retired office admin person, a bookkeeper at times, and a writer. Soon to be published in 2023 a series of books for young folks about Getting a Job, Keeping a Job, and Looking for Another Job. I’ve written almost 300 articles on Medium and would love it if you would subscribe to my stuff. I don’t like to get dressed anymore and have a fabulous disposition, as long as they don’t take away my pills.