She didn't think it was quirky but when she shared it with the group at a recent gathering of participants in the Advancement of Excellence almost everyone in the room had an audible reaction to her unbeknownst strangeness.
"Uuuugg,” they said. "That"s weird…and kind of gross.”
But Arla Jean Murch doesn't think so.
She"s been grooming her cats and keeping the fur that gets stuck in the brush for more than ten years.
She saves it up and hands it over to local weavers who combine it with sheep’s wool to make sweaters.
“I was surprised at the reaction,” Arla Jean says. “Nobody thinks like that with rabbit or sheep’s wool and sheep’s wool can be really dirty.”
It’s a slow process - collecting cat fur one brush full at a time. She handed an entire bag over to the weavers last year and by the end of this year, she hopes to contribute another.
Published in the Nanaimo Daily News on Thursday, March 10, 2005. Copyright (c) Kait Light, kaitsquirks.com, Nanaimo, BC, Canada. All Rights Reserved.
