Monday, January 9, 2012

repurposed Christmas Tree

I like making handmade toys for the cats. I have written about some of my creations before.

Since the cats really enjoyed having the Christmas Tree in the house, I wondered if maybe it could be repurposed into something the cats might enjoy. Wild cats like to scratch against trees, so I figured maybe they would enjoy a natural scratching post.

I trimmed away all the branches and shortened it up. I wasn't sure what to do for the base, so before investing a huge amount of time into creating an attractive and solid base, I figured I would use the Christmas Tree stand as a temporary base.

The result:

And then came the field test:



What you see there is about the extent of the interaction with the new scratching post, it was a complete fail. Each cat give it a sniff and then have ignored it since. None of the cats even touched it with a paw. I'm glad I didn't invest any time into making the base!

Not every handmade cat toy is a winner! But, even though the cats turned up their noses at it, I still found enjoyment in making it for them. Now, on to the next kitty project.

8 comments:

  1. Very creative, actually! Maybe if you had left a few shortened branches it would have been more appealing?

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  2. Sounds like Charlie. He would just sniff it and move on. Hard to tell what they will like and not like. Gotta love them!

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  3. Maybe the sap turned them off? Try leaning it into a corner--maybe the angle is wrong. Then again, who knows what those crazy cats think!

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  4. Too funny - maybe you can put it outside for Oliver and his family....

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  5. I' m agreeing. I think when it dries up a bit you may have a winner. Also maybe roughen it up a bit? I know a ton of cats who like pine to scratch. But it needs a little pre-start.

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  6. I've seen a lot of fancy cat trees made out of real tree trunks.. they end up charging quite a bit for them.

    When I first started reading your post, I couldn't even guess if they would have liked it or not.

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  7. Many years ago, my grandfather brought in part of an dead tree branch for my parents' cat to use when visiting. It was trimmed so it was securely elevated by another piece of branch and angled down to the floor. The floor end was trimmed flat. Missy loved it! Your tree trunk may not be sturdy enough to suit them.

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  8. You could also try taking some sisal rope and wrapping 4-5" of it about 2 feet up, good stretching height. Looks like a great toy in the making, just need the kitties to realize it.

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