Vets, Cats, and Poor Craftsmanship... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 6

Vets, Cats, and Poor Craftsmanship... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 6

Tim Streeter Tim Streeter

Tim Streeter

Published Jul 21, 2018
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Our Family Volunteering event in June was determined by our younger son Donovan. He chose our local Humane Society … which is interesting since he has previously never set foot in a Humane Society and I wasn’t sure if he knew what it was. When I asked him why he chose this, he said “We have a cat of our own, Auntie Melinda is a vet, and a possible future job for me is a vet.” So apparently our 13 year old is starting to think about future jobs. :)

This volunteering event took an unexpected turn from the time it was selected to the time we did it. When Donovan originally researched it, the site was asking for people to collect items which could be used as toys for cats and dogs. So we were planning on taking the list of examples and walking door-to-door through our neighborhood to collect items.

However when we checked the site in June (when we had scheduled this event), it was showing that they only needed one thing: blankets for cats. The site included step-by-step instructions on how to make one, but none of us (well, at least the three males in the house) had ever attempted to make a blanket so we were unsure about our ability to do it successfully.

So the four of us headed to Joann Fabric to pick out some patterns. This is not a store I expect to return to with my children. That having been said, the materials were secured and we all sat at our kitchen table to each make one blanket. This also added a competitive element to see who could make the best product. Note to other potential blanket makers: there are scissors made for cutting fabric and scissors not made for cutting fabric. I recommend the former for these types of projects.

As we executed each step together, one of the four objects started to take the form of a blanket while the other three started to take the form of a paper mache project gone wild. Apparently we needed to cut slits every 1-1.5 inches, and the length of each needed to ~1 inch, and then we were to somehow tie two cloths together with a knot at each slit. Needless to say there were a fair amount of adjustments at this phase and a wide range in quality between my wife’s work and the rest of ours. 

We reminded ourselves that the cats were not likely to judge the quality of the blanket, but rather its softness and “napability”. And given the choice between a cold metal cage and a crappily constructed blanket, we felt they would choose the blanket.

Due to our poor craftsmanship, it took much longer than I would have expected (like a couple of hours) and this was followed by a “correction exercise” during which my wife fixed all of our blankets to meet her minimum standards. Our doubts were eased though when our own cat found the blankets sitting in my office and proceeded to take a nap on them … and he has lots of other napping alternatives.

Together we took the items to our local Humane Society of Huron Valley. There, the employees who greeted us were thankful to receive them and we walked around for 15-20 mins so the kids could see what happens there. We played with some super-cute kittens and avoided the temptation to bring any home with us. 

While this month’s activity exposed our weakness in blanket production, it was also one that was easy and fun to do together, provided insight about our son’s interests which we had not heard before, and helped at least a few cats take better naps. Perhaps with better naps, they will have happier dispositions and be more likely to get adopted. You never know!

This is Chapter 6 of a 12-part series on Family Volunteering. Previous posts can be accessed below:

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