Lots of ideas on keeping your cats physically and mentally engaged by enriching their environments in Episode 110: Cat Environments.

Click below to play.

You can listen to it here and or on iTunes.  We also have an RSS feed you can subscribe to if you use an RSS reader.

Check out these topics mentioned in the podcast:

• DIY Valentine’s Day Toys for Dogs
• DIY Valentine’s Day Toys for Cats
• Bonito Flakes
• Maru

Row 1:

1. knitted winged heart tattoo
2. crocheted tug toy
3. knitted anatomically correct heart

1. crocheted anatomical heart
2. no-sew tug toy with loop–use pink, red, or heart patterned fleece.
3. sewn a candy heart—one that said “Bite Me” would be fun!

1. 4″ knitted heart
2. 5″ crocheted heart
3. knitted fuzzy heart

1. knitted cupcake
2. knitted candy heart
3. sewn heart-shaped dog bed—enlarge a heart template to the right size for a bed for your dog, sew according to the instructions, & stuff with appropriate filling such as a foam layer with batting layered on top.

Row 1

1. knitted & felted hearts
2. more knitted & felted hearts also available in German and French
3. crocheted heart

Row 2

1. hand-sewn felt hearts
2. crocheted cupcake (I would leave off the beads)
3. hand-sewn felt cupcake (I would avoid using glue and sew everything, if you do use glue make sure it’s non-toxic)

Row 3

1. knitted cupcakes 
2. knitted chocolates
3. crocheted chocolates

Row 4

1. hand-sewn felt chocolates & heart box
2. knitted strawberries
3. crocheted strawberries

Row 5

1. hand-sewn felt strawberries
2. crocheted rose with leaves
3. knitted rose with leaves

The guy rescuing Alex is Steve Markwell, founder and executive director of Olympic Animal Sanctuary.  Olympic Animal Sanctuary is a unique organization that takes dogs who have been deemed dangerous, that won’t be accepted by any animal shelters, and/or that are going to be destroyed because of behavior.  Steve is giving these dogs a home for the rest of their life and working on their fears & reactivity to make that life as good as possible. (note: Steve is also my cousin)

Please don’t chain your dog and do something about dogs you see that are chained—contact animal control, animal welfare groups, or anti-chaining groups.  Support legislation banning the chaining or tethering of dogs.

I.  The hearts & bones sweater has a cute motif and has knitted straps to keep the sweater in place.

II.  This sweater has a heart with a bone shot through it and some crocheted trim.  (for more patterns by this designer for purchase, check out Kay’s shop on etsy MySavannahCottage)

Cool! (ha!)  It turns out we don’t need to worry so much about our dogs’ feet getting too cold.  Researchers have learned that dogs’ feet are specially adapted for cold weather and are similar to penguin wings, dolphin fins, & arctic foxes.  The vascular network draws cold blood from the surface of the pads and also rewarms the blood before it continues into the dogs’ core because the veins (carrying cold blood) are running right next too arteries (carrying warm blood) which rewarms the blood in the veins. (thanks Margaret!)

Just because they can withstand extreme cold though, doesn’t mean your dog wants to.  And you do need to protect them from other things that might harm their feet like de-icers, etc.