Rosie does Parkour! She is a Thai Ridgeback mix who does some pretty cool freerunning with her person, Ozzi Quintero. Learn more about Parkour/freerunning.
(“Unleashed” won Best Film at the Hawaii Pet Film Festival.)
News, Advice and Resources for Thoughtful Pet People
Monthly Archive for December, 2009
Page 2 of 4
If you don’t want to make DIY gifts and want some gift ideas for purchasing, here are some of our favorite things for pets and people.
Cats
- Furminator
- Kreature Komfort Heated Bed
- Da Bird and the Mouse Re-Fill
- Cat Vs. Cat: Keeping Peace When You Have More Than One Cat
- Cat Getting Out Of A Bag & Other Observations
Dogs
Here’s a great project to re-purpose old sweaters and turn them into squeaky bones from CraftStylish. If you use a wool sweater, you should probably felt it first. If you don’t, then when you wash the finished toy, it may shrink into a MUCH smaller toy. If you use cotton or acrylic, it won’t felt. (Here are a few tutorials on felting, in case you need them: this one covers both hand & machine felting, here is a printable one on machine felting, and another on hand felting.)
You’ll need:
- a clean, old sweater (yours, from a thrift store, etc.)
- bone pattern–here are 3: bone #1, bone #2, bone #3
- squeakers
- sewing machine
- thread
- fiber fill or some kind of stuffing
- a needle for hand sewing (here’s a tutorial for slip stitch for closing the toy)
The second project is for a fabric squeaky bone toy. This isn’t a difficult project and the tutorial is thorough. You can get some fun fabric for this. If you want to be thrifty, check the remainder table at your fabric store or check for yardage at thrift stores. If you use a lighter cotton, you should use an inner layer of a heavier fabric like canvas or muslin. Upholstery fabric could make some neat toys and you don’t need to buy much.
You’ll need:
- fabric (check the remnants table & thrift stores)
- heavier fabric like canvas or muslin if you use a lighter weight fabric for the outside
- bone pattern–here are 3: bone #1, bone #2, bone #3
- squeaker (the tutorial calls for a rattle)
- sewing machine
- thread
- fiber fill or some kind of stuffing
- a needle for hand sewing (here’s a tutorial for slip stitch for closing the toy)
A new study of coyotes in Tucson showed that cats make up 42% of their diet—more that any other food source. And in confrontations between cats and coyotes, cats were killed more than half the time. The study also raised the question of the impact of the Trap/Neuter/Release approach to feral cats. They may be providing a steady food source for coyotes.
What a good idea, especially for people who work away from home! Walks are great, but aren’t really enough exercise for humans or dogs. Now both people and their dogs can get a good workout at this gym plus doggy daycare in San Francisco. It’s already popular—the owners gave themselves 7 months to make a profit, but it only took 6 weeks.
