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An elderly woman knits with gray yarn while a calico cat sits on her lap, tangled in loose strands of the yarn. 14 / 21

Abuela Rosa Was Halfway Through a Scarf When Her Calico Found the Yarn

AI imagecalico catknittingyarn safety

One row at a time, Abuela Rosa is making something warm, and one loop at a time, Canela is unmaking it. Rosa sits in a wooden chair under a pool of lamplight, gray cardigan buttoned over her apron, reading glasses pushed up into her hair as she concentrates on her needles. Across her lap, the calico sits perfectly calm in what can only be described as a nest of gray yarn, strands looped around her paws, her chest, and the end of her tail. She looks up with an innocent expression, as if the mess appeared on its own. More tangled yarn trails across the table behind them.

Yarn and cats are a classic pairing in pictures, but in real life the combination deserves some care. The trouble is not playing with yarn; it is swallowing it. String, thread, ribbon, tinsel, and yarn are known as linear foreign bodies, and if a cat swallows a length of it, it can cause serious problems in the digestive tract that often need a vet's help. Cats' tongues have backward-facing barbs, which makes it hard for them to spit string out once they start chewing. The safest approach is to store yarn in a closed basket or bag, and offer your cat wand toys or crinkle balls instead. If you ever see string hanging from a cat's mouth or rear end, do not pull it; call your vet right away.

Canela will be untangled in a minute, with no harm done. The scarf, on the other hand, may need a few extra rows.

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