After the last of our elderly cats left us recently, my husband and I decided it was time to go ahead and adopt another group of cats. For a number of years, we had been used to taking care of mature cats around 16 and 17 years old, so while they did take some work as far as medical needs and pampering, they tended to sleep a lot and not get into things like boxes of beads or wire. Now we are dealing with four cats who are a lot younger and, well, curious. Everything in the house is a toy! We have Coco (pictured) at 5 months, her mother, Chanel, who is about 2 years old, a 2 year old brown tabby named Herbie (who spent the first few days behind a desk in our house), and Lola who is about 8 months old and full of energy.
My jewelry studio/office has also been the cat room for many years, and while I did do some cat proofing, it is nothing like I've had to do since our new residents have arrived. I can't keep anything small out on my jewelry bench. So far, my tools on my tool caddy (knock on wood) have managed to survive, but it's been very challenging to keep little cat paws out of my jewelry supplies.
Below is a quick poll to take about your own issues with pets and/or children who want to play with your crafting supplies. I'd also love to hear some fun stories or suggestions for handling it. It's definitely cramped my jewelry making this week!
Oh, by the way, we adopted our group from a wonderful no-kill shelter called Domino's House, which you can friend over on Facebook as well as learn more about. The place is cage-free (unless cats are recovering from medical issues like getting spayed or neutered), and cares for about 150 cats.
Comments
My cat tends to sneak skeins of needlepoint wool right out of my work bag – not the cotton, just the wool. I find them in the strangest places, but they are in “knot” form rather than skeins after he plays with them. Bad kitty!!!
I wonder why wool is better? We have a few hairy snake type toys around here and our cats have always enjoyed those.
What about Husbands and grown children! My tools seam to attact feet! Aarrgggg!
I have 2 ’senior’ cats (one old enough to drive, the other old enough to vote) and a 1-yr old. The cats really don’t care about the beading supplies unless I dangle a strand of beads in front of their paws. I am fortunate the baby can’t reach to the desk yet. To extend the amount of time I have (and to save space) I put pegboard all along my back wall behind the desk. I got pegs, baskets and tool holders from the hardware store. I hung the strands of beads and put nearly everything else in the baskets and loops. It will be at least a couple more years before she can get to them now (I hope
I have a dog who loves to sit by the window in both my clay and “clean” studios while I’m working. Love having her there, but sometimes her tail!!! Long dog (she’s half basset) with long tail (she’s half husky) which when happy means tail wagging.
She’s hit boxes of beads and thread, just-thrown wet pots, dumped over a stack of watercolor and drawing paper…. But I have come to grips and now keep things above the “wag zone”. The only thing now is…she jumps up onto the outdoor table where pots go as they are being loaded or unloaded from the kiln…. *grin and rueful laughter*
I have a large Maine Coon cat named Lorenzo. We call him our cat-dog…since he follows me everywhere. When I am in my workroom he loves to check things out, then he just finds a nice spot to lay and keeps me company. He is almost 4 years old and has never gotten into my beading supplies. (Knock on wood!)
I do have a 13 years old cat. She pretty much laid back and doesn’t bother me or whatever I am working on. My ex-husband is into Warhammer stuff. Warhammer are miniature armies that is made out of plastic and pewter. He drove me nuts when it comes to using my tools because he used my good cutter on paper clips. He uses paper clip to hold parts together. I lost several cutters because it. I think spouse who uses tools that is not appropriate for whatever they work on is far worse than children or pets.
I have a Shih Tzu, Mojo, that we adopted four years ago. I actually say he adopted us!! He is the King of the House. Mojo loves to greet my jewley students at the door. He sometimes gets to watch us make jewelry when one of the students puts him in her lap!!
Mojo never bothers (knock on wood!!) my beads. He does like to chase them when they fall on the floor and start rolling!!
We feel blessed and lucky to have found Mojo!
Thanks for letting us comment.
Luckily, my furry babies-5 dogs & 2 cats- are all older & just want to sit in my lap. Does make it kinda hard to work, so I take a “love” break. As for when the kitties were younger, I have 2 tips. I work on trays, the kind from fast food places, & then can put them into a cabinet or drawer when I finish for the day. That way everything is ready to go the next day. As for the work table, throw a blanket over it when done for the day. Keeps them from playing soccer with the beads & keeps cat hair to a minimum.
All-in-all, my rescue babies are worth any extra effort!
I have two 6 yr old cats that are brothers. They like to be in my jewelry studio with me. I use wire a lot and have to watch that it doesn’t go off the side of the table because DJ likes to “help” by batting it around while I’m working it. Then Romeo wants to sit on my work table. He knows he’s supposed sit on the corner and not bother anything (yeah right). He believes if he moves verrrry sloooowly, I won’t notice when he’s suddenly in the middle of everything! We’ve had numerous discussions about this…
I really am the worst culprit when it comes to my tools, but yes I hate when hubby uses my tools badly. My daughter had a boss that would misuse and misplace tools. Her solution was to keep a cheap set in the top drawer and on the bench and any special ones well to the back of a lower drawer. We have had rabbits and at one time an iguana. The iguana was never a problem. But rabbits like to knaw and think cords are vines. People who clean up for me are also a problem, but I appreciate the effort.
I had the children, 3 of them and I sewed them for many yrs then I had many cats, and they had kittens, God only knows how I did it, thread spools everywhere I even had damaged done to some dresses on a rack from kittens trying to climb the clothes. It was a nightmare sometime but I love those little beasts.Now I have a little dog and a 25 lbs fat cat who has a hard time to jump and I am in the jewelry business; the biggest problems now is my grand daughter who wants and wants and goes home with a lot of jewelries.Now she wants to learn how to do beads with clay and she went home with a book all excited, she is 12, we will see how that goes.I love your column, Lorraine Shea. Thanks so much and love you for adopting those cats.
I have a funny story. We kept blaming our grand kids for taking our jewelry. My husband And i both make jewelry. Well come to find out it was our young cat. I think we still have a gold piece of jewelry somewhere in the house. We had to apologize to our young grand children
i have 2 cats -5 and 14 the younger one Suzi is an attention junkie and wants to be attached to me like a furry little leech all the time.When I am beading I put her scratch post which is the same height as the table next to me and although she complains in her loud Siamese way she has learned to stay there and sleeps while I am busy.the older cat likes to watch but never interferes with my beads
Don’t have kitties but I do have dogs. One of mine slurped up a very expensive sapphire I was setting and I never did get it back. That earned them jail time in the dog room now when I work with the jewelry stuff. Good thing I really love my dogs. LOL
I think I’m pretty blessed – I have a cat, but leaving my supplies out has never been an issue. She’s been known to jump up on the table when beading materials are spread out, but she never did more than sniff at it and tiptoe her way carefully around it so as not to disturb anything! I guess maybe she’s just not a girly-girl!
My daughter’s kitty ate 32 inches of fireline beading thread and had to have major surgery (stomach, intestines, throat). I love it when our 3 kitty cats “help” me bead, but that fireline fiasco cost us over $2000, plus wear and tear on her beloved cat! Beading supplies can be dangerous. Just sayin’.
My ex-husband tied his own flies for fishing. One night I told him that he better move the squirrel fur that he was using because “Bro” had been scoping it out. He left it out and never did find it.
I have a big fat yellow cat now and he loves to lie on top of my little bead containers in my bigger storage box. I took a photo tonight of “Timmee” beading.
I have two cats, (a 10 yr old DSH and a 2 yr old Maine Coon mix). The 10 yr old is pretty mellow and rarely touches my beads. The MC however is another story.
I especially have to keep my bead weaving and stitching materials in screw top canisters now because he likes any kind of string or beading wire. He will play with it and “eat” it, if I don’t close it away. Thank goodness we haven’t had a trip to the vet’s. Way too curious for his own good at times that one.
The only other concern I have had to deal with , is my daughter’s dog who has chewed off all the soft grips on my tools. So no new tools for a while and beefing up on the chew toys some more.
I have 4 cats and a elderly Lab. Cats ages are 17, 10, 5, and 2. Two of them are special needs. All rescues. The only one that gives me trouble is Spirit the 2 year old. She is deaf and I’ve only had her for 6 months. She really likes to get into everything. Especially when I’m asleep! In the morning I find all kinds of things on the floor where she has rooted through bags and trays and pulled beads out! Very curious about everything! Loves to play…
The rest of the furry crew pretty much just watch me do my thing. They would rather snuggle.
Samme, your one-year old will learn to climb on chairs before that!
I have two “Monster Dogs” – 50+lb. rescues, now 4 and 3. Thank God they never got into the supplies. Or at least the nosy one hasn’t thought of it yet! But I am paranoid about what will happen if beads drop and they “investigationally” ingest them. And “Nosy Nessa” is just the type to find stringing materials tasty. Thanks for the ‘heads up’!
My husband carves wood, and for Christmas gave me a special apron that has a huge and openable pocket all the way across the front. Makes me feel so much more secure when I bead…
Barbara, your ideas are wonderful. I use fast food trays, too, but never got as far as the blanket. Thanks!
weezilgirl, thank God your ex didn’t leave out any hooks!
My cat Annabelle loves finding a single round bead on the floor. She will roll it and throw it across the room until it disappears under a piece of furniture. Then she searches for another.
My cats I have two tend to get in my face and jump onto my work table or my lap when I try and do my crafts. They like to knock stuff down and run around like a nut up in the room. They drive me crazy I ususlly spend more time yelling at them then work on my projects. But I guess that is just their way of telling me to pay attention to them and the heck with the crafts.
I too have pets. Four cats and one Old English Sheepdog. The two boys (Cody and Chino) are always trying to sit on my beading table while I am creating. They are all rescue pets (except Dipper our dog) so they tend to get away with a lot more than most people would deal with. I just move them and they sit on my lap or try to climb on the computer table. I just get up and do something else while they amuse themselves. I will usually throw a towel or a magazine on top of the loose beads and they give up in time and find something else to amuse them. It is their home too so we all deal.
Congrats to you for adopting your cats from a shelter!!!
I have 6 rescue dogs and they are all wonderful. I have a craft building that I go to when I want to work on crafting. I quickly learned that closing the door is not allowed in the dog world. As long as they can come visit me then everything is great. However, when I do sit down to work on something, I have several 4-legged volunteers that think they have to occupy the lap space. Sometimes crafting is put on hold, but it is all worth it.
Enjoy your new (young) cats!
I have three cats – Yogi who is 10, BooBoo who is almost 9, and Ranger Smith who is 8 1/2. Yogi likes to see/hear things roll off counters, tables, etc so I have to watch my tubes of beads. BooBoo loves to chew in ribbon and yarn. Ranger just wants lap time. I was making a beaded, loosely braided necklace of craft wire (to see if I liked the end result before making it of nicer wire). I had my three strands of craft wire, and as I loosely braded them, put a bead or two on each strand. I kept getting resistance from one strand and couldn’t figure it out. I looked down to see BooBoo chewing away each time the wire strand came near him. That necklace took a long time to finish….
I find that if I use a portable serving tray, and a heavy quilted cover the same size, that I can do my work anywhere in the house that’s convenient and then cover it so that the kitties can’t see the bits and pieces and carry them off. I do have to keep an eye on all the bits and pieces of beading wire though, and make sure that they’re not sticking out from under the cover.
Hi Tammy, I have 3 curious felines one of which is a jewel thief. When I am working on a bead project, Melody (the jewel thief) sniffs everything, finds a baggie of beads, grabs it and makes off for the next room. She also loves those rubber bracelets because they are chewy and bounce. It seems that cats enjoy smelling then tasting just about everything. The only thing you can do is cloister yourself in the room behind a closed door; of course, listening to their whining at the door will cut into your design work. I wish you luck in your adjustment – all will work out.
My cat sits there and watches me do my jewellery for hours as long as once in a while I make her a new swarovski necklace and she is told that is is the prettiest cat in the world she is perrrrr fectly happy.
Nicky
My 15 year old female swallowed a length of Fireline AND the needle when I was out of the room. It took a trip to the Emergency Vet and an expensive surgery to save her.
The Doctor wasn’t so worried about the needle. Said it could pass through. It was the thread (or any string) that could tangle, twist and cut through the intestines.
Please beware. Keep thread and string away from our beloved pets. I learned the hard way!
@Vicki That is scary! I do keep all my stringing material away, especially now with all the youngsters. They are fascinated with it. I’m glad you cat made it okay.