Picture it: Another day in the carpeted jungle, smellovision (aka an open widow) is wafting the seductive scent of catnip throughout the apartment. Creeping around the forest of chair and table legs is the majestic and predatory fluffy panther. Her prey? The Land Shark. It's call? The high jingling sound of small bells just like the call all birds and small rodents make. Ok, so rodents and birds don't jingle. Mally apparently did not get that memo. To me it's adorable, but to her it's serious business. She'll pounce and wrestle with it, and if she's feeling particularly saucy she'll throw in a few bunny kicks so that Mr. Land Shark knows who is boss.
We came to acquire our version of the SNL Land Shark after I made her those little blue balls. I noticed that occasionally when Mally gets especially fired up her back legs begin pumping in unison. Alas, these devastating attacks met no purchase with those too small spheres of yarn. This tragedy had to be rectified, and quickly. Her next toy needed to be something long enough for her to sink her clawed (and tufted) back toes into while being able to bite it in order to achieve maximum cat satisfaction. Honestly, I think I was influenced by this:
Land Shark - still looking pretty good despite months of abuse
Onward to Ravelry! Here, amidst my fellow fiber friends I found Erika Olimpiew's Sharky Stuffed Toy. While being a delightful and fun pattern to follow, I was not able to complete the embroidery details due to intervention of an impatient pet. Mally's lack of self control might have been influenced by the stuffing being 10% fiberfill with the remaining 90% being catnip. As a sidenote, I acquired an embarrassing amount of catnip by going to Amazon.com and searching for "Catnip Herb" - it's not as potent as the more expensive stuff, but I received about 1 pound of it for around $15. The jingle bells also came to the front door via Amazon prime and were rather inexpensive. These things plus a bit of previously purchased acrylic yarn have made for hours of serious (very serious) fun.
