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Really just an excuse to post cute cat pictures.

Materials: Home decorating cotton, fake fur, thread. Pattern: Kitty Tunnel from Amy Butler's In Stitches.

Time: 2 hours

Cost: $20. I can't believe that I spent real cash money on fake fur, even with a 40%-off coupon.

Our cats love nothing better than snuggling up on our duvet during the day and doggedly nosing their way under the bed covers to curl up with us at night. So, even though spending money on cat toys is never, ever a good investment (favorite toy of our cats: the empty spool from a tape dispenser), the Kitty Tunnel in Amy Butler's In Stitches looked like it would be right up our cats' alley. Why not give it a shot?

After choosing a charming dinosaur-patterned cotton for the outside from the home decorating section, we went to get a matching stretch of fake fur cut. The lady doing the cutting treated the stuff with kid gloves, and warned us against the mounts of fake fur fluff that would immediately fly off the freshly-cut ends when we worked with it. Consider yourselves warned.

The picture in the book makes the tunnel look more, well, tunnel-y than our floppy final result (see above), but it's not like that matters to our cats. The Kitty Tunnel can serve many purposes: