Keeping the Cat Happy and Healthy and DIY Cat Toy

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Keeping the Cat Happy and Healthy and DIY Cat Toy

Our cat has always been a unique cat.  From the moment she reached out of her cage to make sure we noticed her, we knew we had to take her home.  She has always been a little different, from the way she growls at anyone coming to the door to the way she demands to have her food bowl filled.  Yes, she will bite at our ankles if we don’t move fast enough…

Since she is an inside cat, we try to keep her entertained with toys that will help entice her to keep moving.  As an overweight cat, she will lie in one place if we don’t coax her into playing with us.  One of the things she likes to play with is a string of sorts.  Whether we are using the string to play with her or she carries the string upstairs to talk us into playing with her, the string tends to keep her moving.  Do you have a cat you need to coax into moving, rolling, and jumping?  Grab your yarn, and let’s make a DIY cat toy!

I started with any skeins of yarn I had lying around.  All you really need are three colors, unless you want to get fancy and do a four-strand braid…

I cut three 6-foot lengths of each color and knotted each color’s grouping together as above.

Then, I braided each color’s strings and put a knot at the end, so I had three braided lengths of yarn.  This is nothing fancy as it is meant to be played with, so there is no need to have everything line up perfectly.

Lastly, I tied the three braided lengths together and braided them together, knotting the end when I was done.  

She was very interested in seeing her completed toy!  She couldn’t wait to start playing with it.

When I was done, I had one HAPPY cat playing on the floor, twisting and turning as she tried to grab the string.

Another way we try to keep her happy and potentially healthier is with the food we purchase.  We have tried various foods over the years.  Some she likes.  Some she doesn’t like.  Some don’t like her.  See, when we adopted her, she had digestive problems.  We tried different foods until our vet suggested we try Purina Cat Chow Naturals.  In time, it made the difference and has been her dry food of choice for quite some time.

But while she likes her dry food, she also likes her wet food.  Recently, we tried her on Purina Beyond wet cat food.  Her favorite wet food style is pate, so we bought a few flavors in pate.  

I like that the pate looked simple.  From the Beyond website, real fish or poultry is the first ingredient in pate.  There is no corn, wheat, or soy; no poultry by-product; and no added artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.  Whatever is there or not there, the cat loves it!

As a night-shift worker, I’m often in a hurry to get home after work.  But, if I need some groceries or the cat needs food, I try to stop at the one place close to home where I can get just about everything I need with one stop.  My local Giant Food store has a wide variety of people food and cat food to make my stop on the way home quick!  I love being able to get what I need quickly because the sooner I get home, the sooner we get to our homeschool work, and the sooner I get to sleep.  What a win-win!

Oh! Something else I want to share…  If you are interested in trying Purina Beyond wet cat food for your cat, make sure to check out the Oct. 16 Sunday paper.  The is going to be a coupon good for $1 off the Variety Pack, Buy 3, Get 1 Free Purina Beyond wet cat food.  Also, if you would like to try Purina’s new dental product to help with your cat’s dental health, make sure to grab a $2 dollar coupon for DentaLife here.  

How do you take care of your cat?

Disclosure:  Not to be taken as professional veterinary advice. Please consult your veterinarian for recommendations and practices appropriate for your pet.