Safe glue for cat toys?

Silly question, perhaps, but I'm wondering if any of you good folks
know.

I got one of those cheap little toys, a fuzzy ball on an elastic
string tied at the top to a little plastic ring. The kittens *adore*
it. So I got one for my guys, too. For the kittens, it's fine. The
fuzzy ball is almost as big as their little heads! And it's still
intact (other than coming untied at the ring, which led Jack to run
off and hide with it for awhile -- lol). But my guys are big guys,
and Arthur managed to pretty much tear it up in short order. And he
is obsessed with the thing. I have one of those holiday paper storage
tubes that I keep the long interactive cat toys in, and it has a
separate opening in the top (ostensibly for tags, tape and scissors
and the like), where I have fuzzy toys that they shouldn't play with
by themselves. He drove himself nearly crazy the other day, trying to
figure out how to get to it!

Anyway, the fuzzy needs glued better. I have everything from Elmer's
to glue sticks to Allene's Original Tacky Glue (my favorite for crafts
and it says it is non-toxic). Any idea what the safest glue would be?

Thanks!

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
http://www.spiritrealm.com/summer/
http://www.angelfire.com/folk/glsummer (homepage & cats)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb....mmer/index.htm (genealogy)
http://www.movieanimals.bravehost.com/ (The Violence Against
Animals in Movies Website)

wrote in message
...
Silly question, perhaps, but I'm wondering if any of you good folks
know.

I got one of those cheap little toys, a fuzzy ball on an elastic
string tied at the top to a little plastic ring. The kittens *adore*
it. So I got one for my guys, too. For the kittens, it's fine. The
fuzzy ball is almost as big as their little heads! And it's still
intact (other than coming untied at the ring, which led Jack to run
off and hide with it for awhile -- lol). But my guys are big guys,
and Arthur managed to pretty much tear it up in short order. And he
is obsessed with the thing. I have one of those holiday paper storage
tubes that I keep the long interactive cat toys in, and it has a
separate opening in the top (ostensibly for tags, tape and scissors
and the like), where I have fuzzy toys that they shouldn't play with
by themselves. He drove himself nearly crazy the other day, trying to
figure out how to get to it!

Anyway, the fuzzy needs glued better. I have everything from Elmer's
to glue sticks to Allene's Original Tacky Glue (my favorite for crafts
and it says it is non-toxic). Any idea what the safest glue would be?

Most glues *when dried* are fairly inert. Its when they are wet that causes
the problems. Since the fuzzy thing is going to get *alot* of attention, you
need a glue that is going to dry waterproof and one that can take a fair bit
of damage. tehrefore you want a flexible glue rather than one that dries
hard & brittle. Superglue would be very bad for this job, as its is
incredibly brittle when dry. Elmer's glue sticks, if they are what I think
they are, will be pretty darn useless. Standard PVA craft glue might work
OK, as long as it dries waterproof (check first, becaus eyou don't want it
decaying inthe presence of cat spit).

I don't know what your tacky glue is, but if you've used it for crafts
before and it works on fabric (I assume thats what the fuzzy part is), that
should probably be fine as its flexible and rubbery and will be able to take
a fair degree of beating up before breaking - but the one I'd personally
recommend is the hot glue gun. Tahts already pretty impervious to water and
its very unlikely to get hot enough to come undone in a cat's mouth.

Do a test run on something similar, let it dry for the required length of
time, then soak it in body temperature water for about half an hour (or the
maximum exposure time to cat spit). If the glue changes in any way (softens,
goes milky etc) then don't use it.

HTH

Vicky