Catnip Mice!

As I may have mentioned in the past, I have three furry little bundles of assholery sharing my home with me. Yes, I just called them assholes, but yes, I am masochistic and I love them for it. I am sure any cat lover knows this feeling all too well. My cats are Heidi (10), Greebo (5) and Wicky, (3).
Wicky (short for Gallywix - a character from World of Warcraft) is the youngest and therefore the biggest asshole going! Oh sure, he looks pretty enough, but underneath that fur is the biggest cat-jerk known to man! But he's so cute, so what am I going to do?



The other day I noticed that he was chasing yet another bottle cap around the floor, out of the rubbish bin. He does this all the time. Seriously - It doesn't matter how much I spend on cats toys, something out of the rubbish will always be much more amusing. Just like cardboard boxes and clean laundry are the comfiest beds, and the sofa is the best scratch post! But as the masochistic cat lover I am, on my never-ending quests to fulfill my cats' desires, I decided that I would make him a toy that he might actually play with - A catnip mouse.



I don't know why I decided to do this, because he has had catnip mice from the store before, and lo - he actually only played with the mouse for all of ten minutes - but it was something to do, and for those ten minutes he left both my sofa and my laundry alone. Success? I think so!

For the catnip mouse I used worsted weight cotton from Sugar and Cream in the Jewel colourway, with a 5.5mm hook. The pattern was found on Ravelry by Meelai - The Easy Peasy Catnip Mouse Toy. As the name suggests, it really is very easy to make. I made two mice, and each one took me less than an hour. I stuffed the mice with standard toy stuffing bought from Hobbycraft, and a small amount of dry catnip that I bought from the pet department of the local Wilkos. I am sure that it can be found in any pet store though.
The most difficult part of making the toys was after I got the catnip out from the cupboard - My catnip came in plastic tubs with little caps on. Once the caps were removed all three of the cats started going absolutely mental. Trying to pour dried catnip into the toy with three cats trying to knock it out of my hands was quite the challenge! If anyone else intends to make one of these mice for their pet, I strongly urge them to do it without the cat in the room at the time!!

I made two mice for three cats, and I did expect to have to make a third as the initial interest in the mouse was pretty mental. But, as with any toy I have provided for the little fur-demons, after ten minutes the novelty wore off and they haven't touched them since...



Oh well.