Walsall Wonderland

If you’re a cat owner, especially of an affectionate cat, then I’m sure you’ll be familiar with my plight.

I’ve two cats, a girl-cat and a boy-cat, and both are highly affectionate. I love this about them, there’s no issue with that, but one of my cats, the girl-cat, has always been quite clawy when she sits on you and you pat her.

There are so many names used to describe when cats do this, kneading, kneading dough, making biscuits, making bread, or massaging. Basically, they press down on you or a cushion or a blanket, spread their toes to extend their claws, then pull their claws in, toes in, paw up, all whilst holding onto part of the soft place they are sitting, even if that includes you!

My girl-cat does this chronically, I think partly because we took her at a fairly early age, and I’m guessing she didn’t wean properly. She’s quite small, but very dense, and weighs a lot for such a small cat. She also has incredibly sharp claws, far sharper than our boy-cats.

I have noticed, if you put your finger on her paw-pad, and hold it there, when she starts kneading, her claws don’t quite reach your finger, and it can be a good way to save your skin. This girl-cat of ours also loves to claw for a number of other reasons, for instance; you want to get up off the couch and she is sitting on you, as you move, she will dig her claws in and launch herself off you. Or you pick her up, and she decides she has to be up high, close to your face, so she will use her claws to climb you. Or my personal least favourite, I had to bathe her one night, and she managed to get her arm (I know it’s a fore-leg but I call them arms… they have elbows!) over my shoulder, and dug her claws into my back and used them to pull her body weight over my shoulder and run down my back to escape the bath. Ugh, that was painful!

I hate the way all the little cat scratches hurt when you get in the shower or bath, or the way they make you look unkempt. I combat it by wearing a very thick bathrobe around the house, and am also careful about when I let her sit on me, regarding the types of fabrics I’m dressed in.

Today’s pattern has to be for a kitty, so here is a lovely felted kitty chevron bed. It is an amazing pattern, and something I would love to make for my cats!