Ages ago, back when we were on the boat, I bought Mr Perkins a Big Ol’ Catnip Sack. I was, as ever, not convinced that he’d like it. But he did like it. He licks it, he bites it, he kicks it. He loves it.
He’s loved it so much that he’s made a hole in the seam, so the catnip started coming out. I had to take it off him when I noticed, but he wasn’t happy about this. I hid the sack under some stuff on the table, but he sniffed it out. I thought I’d better do something about it pronto.
I was in the pet shop yesterday, and I saw a tub of catnip. I bought it, along with a few other things, and went home and got the sewing needle out. I found some strong thread that was a reasonable colour match, and set to work.
The first thing I did was to make the hole bigger so I could fill it with more catnip. If I’d thought, I could have emptied it of catnip and given it a good wash before I did anything else. But I didn’t, so there you go. It’s still skanky. It’ll just have to wait till the next hole he puts in it — hopefully in a different side to the one I was about to sew up.
Next, I found my smallest measuring spoon, a pinch, and put some more catnip in the sack. What was in there was powder. I assume this is because it has been crushed over the years. The new catnip was more like tea leaves. I shovelled loads in there. Who knew there was so much space in it? Mr Perkins helped, of course.
Then it came to the actual sewing part, the part I was dreading. The first step of any sewing or knitting I do is to look up how to do it on the internet. I found the perfect how-to on Taffy Talk. The nice lady showed me how to invisibly close a seam using ladder stitch, which I’d never heard of. It seemed pretty easy to do, and I think I did a pretty decent job, considering. The seam was invisible, as promised, except for the start, but only because I didn’t start in the right place.
Mr Perkins was sitting waiting under a dining chair. I threw the catnip sack to him so it landed at his feet. He looked down on it with disdain. That was not what he was waiting for. What he was waiting for was his supper: it was seven minutes late.
He found his Big Ol’ Catnip Sack again today. He seemed to enjoy playing with it. It is one of his favourites, along with his tennis ball. He seemed to have a good time with his newly mended catnip sack. He licked it, he bit it, he kicked it. He loved it. And I’m sure he appreciates his mammy fixing it for him. I’m sure of it.
