Wool Felted Orange Tabby Cat

About a month ago my friend Margot came over and we had a night of crafting, chit chat, and video watching.  At first I worked on a linocut project but then Margot handed me a fistful of wool and said, "Make something!".  I had never done needle felting before and she taught me how to repeatedly jab a barred needle into the felt to form it and make it harder.  It is awesome because you can add colors and other forms to your object easily by just jabbing the needle to make the connection. 

At first my attempts looked like a sad white embryonic form.  But as I kept working it and adding color it began to take shape. I even added stripes a couple weeks later after my friend Sari loaned me some darker orange wool.  You can see my inspiration below.

This photo shows the stripes I added to the back of the head.

One day George came down the stairs to find Otus batting something around.  He thought it was just one of the usual "mousy mouses" that frequently lie about the house mostly abandoned until someone wants attention.  But when he looked closer he found Otus had claimed my wool felted masterpiece as a toy!  Once he pried it out of Otus's little paws he could see it was mostly intact but with a bit of orange missing.  Repair work was done and we now keep our wooly orange boy up high out of reach and this makes someone sad and bored.