What is going on with these pillows?

Dear Nick and Judy,

If your pillows were 24 inches square, the inner pillows with stuffing should have been at least 26 inches square. This keeps them firm even after use.

Teri

Dear Nick and Judy,

Perhaps since the filling is feathers, you need to increase the size of the inner pillow by another two inches. Won't hurt to try.

Teri

Dear Nick and Judy,

I don't know where I got the idea you were using feathers. The type of pillow I use is a foam style, rigidly stuffed with shredded foam. Maybe the polyfil is too soft. I have a pillow I made years ago by just stuffing it. It's a small (12") pulled work. The stuffing won't stay in the corners, and I'm too lazy to take it apart and fix it. You might try a larger insert, then take a couple of stitches in the corners, through the cording so it won't show.

Teri

It sounds to me like they are being well used? A couple of mine are used all the time and don't fit your description. ;-))

I've found that polyfil flattens so only use crumb foam these days and usually make my own. The outer skin is poly quilt wadding, as it gives a smooth finish, then inside I throw offcuts of the same wadding (left over from quilt projects) as well as some crumb foam but always make sure they are stuffed quite full, as most fillers will flatten a little.

When I made cushions for an outside lounge I used old pillows that are too flat for sleeping, folded them in half and put them inside the outer covering and they have turned out best of all. Maybe some cheap pillows might be the answer?

All I can suggest, not sure it helps you though? Bronwyn ;-)

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Thanks for the idea, Bronwyn! I have been wondering what to do with the old bed pillows - I'm too tight to throw them away! ;-)

ROFLMHO!!! I was the same, that's why I came up with the idea. Do you know they have been the 'best' cushions I've made, and still are!!

I just threw them in the washing machine with detergent and bleach, pegged them on the clothes line for a couple of days until they dried, and voila!!

Bronwyn ;-)

Pog> HC wrote:

ROTFLOL! I save all my old-flat-but-too-good-to-dump-in-the-landfill bed pillows to use as beds for my dog. Whip up a removable, washable cover, et voila! MingTu thinks he's special doncha know. He has his *own beds* in every room in the house.

Beverly

I've got three cats. Does this mean I have to get a dog now? ;-)

I imagine if you stick a little catnip in with the old-bed-pillows-cushions, the cats will like them just fine. ;-)

Beverly

It won't conflict with the lavender oil I put on my pillows?

No, I think the cats would really like to use up your steamrollered pillows.

Pogonip wrote in news:45fb8532$ snipped-for-privacy@news.bnb-lp.com:

only if you want to. i have 6 indoor & 2 barn cats, & 2 dogs. the cats have pillows in front of assorted heat vents. the Great Pyranees/Border Collie cross keeps his pillows in his crate. the Malamute has shredded every pillow or bed i've given him (& totally destroyed 2 crates, so i gave up on that). the barn kitties have a heated bed in the barn, but they also have pillows in the basemeent (Tom went down to lock in the chickens last week & found an opossum sleeping in the heated cat bed!)

lee

The best filler I ever found for stuffed things was old nylon hose. Too bad I only wear trouser socks and even then only once or twice per week these days.

Well, if you're going to count - I have 3 indoor cats, up from 2 a couple of weeks ago. I feed some feral cats and two "throw-aways" showed up at the food bowl. One of them moved in with us recently. I thought she was a kitten, but the vet tells me she's at least a year old and he thinks she's already been spayed. He can't see the incision - she has a very furry tummy - but there are other signs, like "no heat." That leaves me with two ferals - brother and sister from a litter born 3 years ago under a neighbor's deck - I call them the Ghost and Mrs. Muir. They are very close, but their relationship is platonic. ;-) She has a tipped ear. He doesn't, but if I can ever catch or trap him, he will. The other outdoor cat is a Persian, obviously was someone's pet, and they probably moved without taking her. That's a fairly common occurrence in this University housing area. She lets me get fairly close sometimes - especially if I am carrying food - but no touching! She is Timi - short for Timid. She also seems to have been spayed, although her ear is not tipped. Hence, I think she was a pet left behind.

I find that it's better to have a stable population of known neutered cats in my large backyard, so I feed and water, and we built a house for them for cold weather. Otherwise, I end up with all kinds of cats coming and going and no control over their breeding and fighting habits.

Did I mention the raccoons?

If the raccoons are coming around often, and they probably are if there is cat food outside, call animal control to come trap them. They use humane traps, and they normally take the animals to someplace where they will be safe and then release them. Raccoons are cute and it's fun to feed them and watch them. BUT they don't make annual trips to the vet. They could be carrying any number of diseases that could make your cats (not to mention you) very sick. Some of the things they could be carrying they could pass on to the cats just by eating or drinking from the same dishes, not to mention any bites or scratches.

Sharon

Pogonip wrote in news:45fc46a6$ snipped-for-privacy@news.bnb-lp.com:

i'm actually surprised we don't get more dumped animals here. in one of the houses i used to have, i was always finding new cats in the yard... that's how i got to 11 cats at one point... however, the evening before Christmas Eve a truck came up the driveway (it's a loooong driveway. i'm pretty rural). one of the farmers from the other end of the road came to the door with a little furry thing. he said "I found this in the road in front of your house. At first, i thought it was a mink, but when i got out it came right up to me." it was a ferret. a very dehydrated, starving, cold ferret. i told him it wasn't mine, but i'd take it from him. he looked very relieved :) so, now we also have a ferret. i wasn't sure she'd actually survive, because she was in pretty bad shape. i fed her kitten milk replacer from a kitten bottle for a week before she was strong enough & rehydrated enough to eat ferret chow. she's doing pretty well now, except for slightly swollen glands on her neck. i have a hard time understanding why people just dump animals.

i have never heard of the tipped ear for neutered strays. seems like a good idea though.

aw! i had pet raccoons when i was 19. i'm not quite so fond of them now that i raise chickens though... ;) raccoons can be silent carriers of rabies though, & they can get distemper, so be careful around them. lee

Some time ago, I did call about a raccoon here. Animal Control referred me to the State Wildlife Department and I talked to a very nice man there who offered me the use of a Hav-a-Hart trap. He explained how to use it. I asked him, what then? He nicely replied, "Then you will have a raccoon." He wanted the trap returned to him empty.

Raccoons have been here longer than people. Not the same individuals, but their great-great-greats to the nth. We have taken their habitat. They are trying to accommodate us and share. Many of them live in the storm drains in this area. Storms are rare, heck, rainfall is rare! We generally get 7 to 10 inches a year.

I suppose I could trap raccoons and relocate them, with the use of the borrowed traps. But there is an endless supply of raccoons, and this would quickly become an exercise in futility. The cats don't mess with the 'coons, and the 'coons don't mess with the cats. I try to put the food out in such a way that it's gone by sundown.

Raccoons can carry rabies, and are not affected by it. However, the raccoons around here are free of infection. Plus, of course, we have no fleas, so that eliminates a whole set of problems and diseases.

We are adopting the Live and Let Live approach.