COLLARING ANNIE: A DIY TALE HAPPY ENDING

Everyone is happy with Annie's new collar (me, Artie, Annie) except Orphee.  Being a cat he couldn't care either way. My part 2 post was quite long so I decided to save Annie's formal portrait for today's post. The green and gold of the collar flatters her coloring. My sweetie looks adorable in her new collar.

Now I'm toying with redoing her gold stone heart charm one more time and repairing her predecessor Roger's St. Francis medal to add to her collar. Why are my dogs so hard on their possessions?

Orphee, for the time being, is safe from my need to DIY. He has a store bought collar I let out and restitched. After getting it home I discovered it was too small for him.  It wasn't a small collar, he's a big cat! Who knows, maybe someday I'll make him a new collar but he'll have to destroy the current one first.

Annie sleeping peacefully all decked out in her new collar.

COLLARING ANNIE: A DIY TALE PART 2

I gathered my materials spending a good part of the day putting together Annie's new collar. A few years' back Artie bought Annie a pull toy at the 99 Cents Store. Consisting of a strap attached to a tennis ball it instantly became Annie's favorite. After a few good squeezes, the tennis ball split in two rendering the toy useless. Annie was heartbroken, Artie got her a different toy and I threw out the tennis ball but kept the strap for a rainy day.

The rainy day arrived - the strap was perfect for the new collar. The other materials were heavy duty black thread and Annie's old collar. Next I assembled my tools: my vintage hand-me-down cutting shears (my Grandfather was a tailor), pliers, a thick nail, a box of matches, my thread cutter, a heavy duty sewing machine needle and a sturdy needle used for embroidery.

Woven plastic strap from Annie's toy.

Since the strap was woven plastic, I decided to seal each end by melting them closed. Using a low flame on the stove, I melted one end but the plastic cooled quickly, the end result being very lumpy. I trimmed the lumpy part away and tried again using wooden matches instead, flattening the melted plastic with a corning-ware dish as I went along. The melted edge came out straight, flat and smooth.

Grandpa's scissors and the trimmed, resealed end.

Next, I placed the old collar on top of the plastic strap, measuring the strap and allowing for additional material I needed to fold over to stitch the buckle and loop for Annie's tags in place. After rechecking my measurements twice, I cut the other end, shaping it to a point like the original collar then repeating the process for melting the edges.  

Getting ready to shape the collar.

The finished shape prior to sealing the edge.

Now it was time to movie back to the other end of the collar. After cutting the original collar away from the loop and buckle, I threaded the strap through both and pinned them in place. Using the heavy duty needle and thread, I sewed the buckle and loop into place with my sewing machine leaving enough thread at both ends to finish the stitching by hand.

Pinned and ready to sew.

Ready to finish off by hand-stitching.

A few finishing stitches with the embroidery needle on each end of the new collar and double knotting the thread will prevent the stitches from coming undone and the collar from coming apart. In order to achieve a nice, clean finish I pulled the threads between the two layers of strap cutting off the excess with the thread cutter.

All that remained was to add the holes to secure the collar. Back to the stove I went with pliers and the large nail. Grasping the nail with the pliers, I heated the tip on a low flame. With the original collar as a guide, I pushed the nail through the holes then through the new collar repeating the process until the holes were large enough to accommodate the buckle.

Working on adding the holes.

The finished collar.

Not bad for a DIY project where the DIYer invented the instructions as she went along! Of course, Annie looks great in her new collar. One last important point, we NEVER walk Annie by her collar, her leash is always attached to her harness. That's why I made the collar myself. I would suggest doing more research if you are going to attempt making a collar used for walking your dog. I know this collar is sturdy enough to keep Annie and her tags from parting company which is all that I need it to do. 

CHALK IT UP TO EXPERIENCE

Ants are a big problem when you manage a feral colony so I began searching for a way to keep them out of the food.

I thought I'd hit on the perfect solution - a tray filled with water underneath the tray containing the food. It worked well in theory but not in fact. The cats moved the food tray to where it touched the edge of the water tray allowing the ants to climb into the food dish totally avoiding the water.

A better solution was to hot-glue both trays together (or so I thought). This approach worked for a while but eventually the glue came loose and we were back to the problem of floating food trays. To top it all off, the cats regularly spilled food into the water creating a mushy, disgusting mess for me to clean up. I decided to scrap the entire water-tray idea and search for a new approach.

White trays held water and black trays held food.

Empty food tray with water trays containing food and debris laden water.

COLLARING ANNIE: A DIY TALE

Kids are tough on their possessions, right? Furry kids are no exception to that rule and Annie definitely proves beyond a shadow of a doubt the truth of that statement. Many years ago when Annie was just an adolescent, I crafted a beautiful charm from a gold stone. The stone was in the shape of a heart and it hung from her collar along with her license and vaccination tags.

Annie loves to run the length of our back porch, barking at cats, barking at squirrels generally just running to check out any noise. But it's not enough to run. She has to squeeze her head between the wrought iron bars. There's just enough room for her head not to get stuck but it means pushing her ears through and pulling them out. I really don't know how she did it but she managed to break the heavy metal wire connecting the charm to the ring on her collar.

It broke, I fixed it. It broke again, I fixed it. It broke yet again, I gave up.

Annie is the proud owner of a really nice heavy duty leather and fabric collar. Black with gold designs, it matched her fur and her eyes or it did. Again, I don't know how, but Annie has managed to beat the life out of this collar. The fabric is all worn away from the heavy duty body of the collar and the leather is stretched out! Sometimes, after she pulls it through the fence it becomes undone and falls off her neck.

So now it's past time for a new collar. I'm toying with the idea of making one. I'm off to gather the necessary materials I have squirreled away so I can begin my DIY project.

Annie's old beat-up collar.