Guitar String Cat Toy

I've slowly been moving my collection of crafting supplies from my parents' house to my apartment. Last week, I found some guitar strings in that collection, mementos of my time as a bassist in high school jazz band.

Donner, my younger cat, found the guitar strings when I brought them home and appropriated one as a toy. I decided to spruce it up a bit and make it more cat-friendly than just coiled wire. Delving into my collection of beads, I found a cheap, lightweight plastic one that originally came in a hemp jewelry kit. The color wasn't very important to me, but the material and weight of it was. I didn't want to use anything that would break when hit on the floor or injure my cat because of a heavy weighted bead. My strings are ball-tie, so they have a built-in stop for the bead I added.

Next, I gathered a bunch of feathers from a previous project and my superglue. For the life of me, I can't remember what kind of feathers these are, but I suspect quail. I wound up using 5 feathers in total. The base of the feather was coated in glue and inserted into the space between the guitar string and bead.

Once there was no more room for additional feathers, I flooded the center of the bead on the side opposite the feathers with super glue. Once this hardened, I tugged on each feather individually and as a group to ensure that they won't pull out during play.

 The new toy is a huge hit! Due to the nature of the guitar string, the toy easily mimics the jerky motions of an injured bird. Donner loves it.

That being said, this is not a toy that I will leave out. The feathers are a potential choking hazard if my boys should chew them, and my boys shouldn't be given the chance to chew on the string.

Such intensity!

Such focus!

This craft cost me nothing, as I had all the supplies on hand. Overall, it took about 10 minutes to make, including glue drying time.