Felted Cat Balls

ok- Bear with me here.This post will definitely add to my Crazy Cat Lady persona but is not as odd as the title sounds.. 

I use a Furminator comb on my pets. Kinda pricey (check ebay!) but it works great!. It actually combs out the fluffy underfur if you know what I mean. So I was thinking about how this fur mats into balls and thought I would try making one by hand.

I am not a felter at all so I was totally winging it based solely on a bit of a Martha show I remembered where she made felt mittens out of wool fluff.

  So I took all the fur and put a drop of liquid soap in it and a dribble of water and just rolled it in my hands- adding water as needed.

Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling. . . . Before long, it was tightening up nicely and when it was a tight little ball I rinsed and blotted and squeezed and rolled it some more on a towel.

I was  thinking I did not want it smelling like my Bath & Body Lime Verbena hand soap so I rolled it on the cat as I was petting her – to make it smell more like her.

The cat went nuts with it! Prrt-ing and  meowing at it, batting at it and tossing it in the air – MUCH bigger reaction than with other toys.

I then made this one from another of my cats to take the pictures and, surprisingly, the fur felted differently. Not as tight and with some hair poking out a bit. Next time I will try to comb her belly more. But she loved her ball, too and it reminded me of how she plays with those tiny very expensive little fur mice I buy her once in a blue moon (she destroys or looses them within minutes!).

Then I thought I should see if I did it right and found out this is not a new idea. There are videos (although I prefer my ball shape to his cigar shape), other tutorials (I have no patience to dye them but cute idea) and sculptures (I’m not that talented).

So, it is not as weird as it sounds. Try it and drop me a line on how your cat likes it.