PAWliday Crafts & Workshops

Monday, December 21^st, 4:00-4:30pm: PAWliday Craft - Cat Wands

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Being indoors doesn’t mean your cat shouldn’t stay active and have fun. Here’s a crafty way to enhance your cat’s day by playing on her hunting instincts and see the world through your cat’s eyes within the comfort of your own home. Don’t have a cat? Donate your wand to the animal shelter!

You can get the whole family to join the fun, and these toys will help keep everyone busy, including your furry friend. You can make each wand as unique as you!

Benefits of a DIY Wand Cat Toy:

How can these toys enrich your cat’s day? You can wave, twitch, flutter and circle the wand around randomly so that the ribbon moves enticingly like an insect or bird or other prey. A key added benefit of the wand toy is that it lets you keep some distance between your cat's claws and your skin.

Before you get started, here are a couple things to consider:

When enjoying your creation, be mindful that these cat toys are made of small parts. Please supervise your furry friend while playing and collect the pieces when done to help ensure safety. Put wand and toys away when not in use.

Supplies you will need:
One sturdy stick, around 12 inches long
Ribbon, shoe laces, thin craft rope, yarn or other kind of string. Approx. 18-24 inches long. (will need at least one length of 'string', but can have additional strings for a fuller wand.)

Bells, small cat toys, feathers or fabric scraps

Optional supplies:
1/2 inch sturdy wood dowel instead of stick

Multiple strings and toys

Steps:

Take your stick and string and tie a knot in the string around the end of you stick. Take your toy/bell/fabric/feather that you chose and tie a knot around that with the other end of the string. You can do this as many times as you want to make a fuller wand, alternating empty strings with strings with fun things on the end! Now you can wave, twitch, flutter and circle the wand around randomly so that the ribbon moves enticingly like an insect or bird or other prey.

Pawliday Crafts with Kids: Day 2. Four DIY sock dog toys

Tuesday, December 22^nd, 2020 11:00-11:30AM

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DIY Sock Toys:

Learn how to create 4 different types of dog toys on a budget. Your dog is going to love these! These are great for fetching or tugging. Plus, you have the added benefit of recycling old socks to a new and useful purpose. These 4 easy DIY dog toys can be made using old socks you have laying around the house, and by recycling from some old, worn out toys too.

Option 1:

1 knee high sock

Option 2:

1 knee high sock

1 tennis ball

Option 3:

1 knee high sock

1 empty plastic bottle

Option 4:

1 Knee high sock

1 old Stuffed Squeaky toy (poly-fil and squeaker)

Scissors to snip a hole in the old toy to pull out the stuffing and squeaker

Instructions

Toy option 1: Tie knots in the sock to make a fun tug toy

Toy option 2: Tie knot at the heel of the sock, insert ball, tie 2 more knots above the ball and then tie the ends two together with a square knot

Toy option 3: Tie knot at heel, insert empty plastic water bottle (the sturdier the better), and tie two knots above the bottle

Toy option 4: Use scissors to snip a hole in an old stuffed squeaky toy. Pull out poly-fil and squeaker. Tie knot at heel of sock, stuff in half of the poly-fil, insert squeaker, stuff in the other half of the poly-fil, and tie two more knots above that.

Pawliday Crafts Day 3: Salt Dough Paw Ornament
Wednesday, December 23^rd, 4:00-4:30pm

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INGREDIENTS:

1 cup salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup water

Parchment paper or aluminum foil

Baking sheet

Straw/pen for punching a hole

Yarn, string, ribbon or twine for hanging ornament

Optional for personalizing:

Acrylic paint

Mod Podge and glitter

Directions:

Step 1: Mix the salt, flour, and water in a bowl until it becomes firm. Knead the dough for 30 seconds. Use a rolling pin if you want a flatter ornament and then cut individual circles with a cup or cookie cutters.

Step 2: Press your dog’s or cat’s paw into the salt dough and use a straw/pen cap to make a small hole at the top.

Step 3: Bake at 200 degrees in the oven for 2-3 hours or until completely dry.

Step 4: Once it is cooled, you can grab some acrylic paint or mod podge and some glitter to decorate! Finish it off with a pretty ribbon to hang on the tree!

SAFETY: Make sure to hang ornaments out of reach of pets as these are toxic due to the large amount of salt in salt dough ornaments.

Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 4 Recycled Enrichment

Monday, December 28^th 4 PM - 4:30 PM

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Supplies needed: Whatever you have in your recycle bin! Such as:

Cardboard boxes of different sizes

Toilet rolls/paper towel rolls, empty wrapping paper rolls.

Packing paper, newspaper, wrapping paper

Plastic bottles and jugs (caps and labels removed)

Cardboard egg cartons

Plus:
Kibble or treats
Tape

Instructions

Paper tubes/rolls: Use these singularly and fold over the ends to make a challenge for your pet to empty.

Empty bottles/jugs: Use old empty plastic bottles (well washed) to dispense dry food/treats.  For your pets safety remove the lid, ring and label as well as supervise.  Some pets will chew the bottle and could ingest the plastic or cut their gums.

Cardboard Boxes: Throw in kibble or treats into an empty box. Fold or tape lid shut for an extra challenge.  Scrunch some paper to make it hard for your pet to find the reward.

 Try Putting a box inside of another box with only 1 reward in each box. 

Put out several boxes and only put a treat in one or two to get your pet searching and using its natural instincts to hunt and find the reward.

Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 5 Cardboard Cat House

Tuesday, December 29^th 11:00-11:30am

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Supplies:

Cardboard Box – approx 20-24″ cube (or large enough to comfortably fit your cat!)

Scissors (to cut openings in box)

Embellishments – Craft Paint, Markers, Colored Pencils, Colored Paper, Ribbon, Etc.

Blanket, pillow, towel or cat bed

Instructions:

Flip Box upside down, flaps out to stabilize box (or you can tape flaps closed)

Cut round hole in side for a door, large enough for your cat to fit through.

Cut smaller windows on sides of box

Now for the fun part – painting and decorating! There are SO many different ways that you can be creative with it!

Put blanket/pillow inside the box

Now your cat can enjoy their new hideaway house! Place some of your cat’s favorite treats inside to help encourage them to go in.

Pawliday Crafts for Kids: Day 6 Pupsicles

Wednesday, December 30^th 4:00-4:30

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Supplies needed:

Plastic cups or muffin tin

Can of 100% pumpkin puree

Dry kibble

Canned dog food

Peanut Butter or Plain Greek Yogurt

Milk bones, bully sticks or other long treat for the “handle”

Low sodium chicken or beef broth

Water

Instructions:

Layer the ingredients in a cup or muffin tin

Add the handle treat

Add a splash of broth and fill the rest of the cup with water

Place in freezer and freeze

To thaw and pull popsicle out of cup, run some warm water on the outside of the cup and then tip cup over and pull on handle

Pawlidays Crafts for Kids: Day 7 Cat Pom Poms

Thursday, December 31^st 11:00-11:30am

Supplies:

-Cotton or wool yarn/string

-Scissors

Directions:

1. Start by selecting a type of string and holding the end in the palm of your hand. Wrap the string around and around your hand, looping it at least 50 times.

1. Now slide the looped string off your hand and tie around the center with a length of string.

3. Work your scissors through the looped sides of the string and cut, creating the pom-pom kitty toy.
4. Cut the other half of the looped string and trim around the pom-pom as needed. Make several so your feline has a toy for every room in your house.