Creeping Toad: Lost Cat Puppets

Snow cats, flower cats, fierce cats, friendly cats
Make your own Lost Cat Puppet

We’ve been making some wonderful Lost Cat puppets. If you missed us at Buxton Museum, why not have a go and make your own puppet?

Once upon a time, big cats roamed the hills of Buxton. Scimitar-toothed cats (Victory Quarry, Dove Holes) were here when humans wandered into the Peaks about 30,000 years ago, while cave lions lingered until about 12,000 years ago, (Hindlow Cave, near Earl Sterndale). Lynx loitered longer than anyone realised and might have been prowling Scottish forests into this millennium. Then there are our domestic moggies now, offering affection and purrs and sometimes causing chaos among our small birds and mammals.

And, of course, at the moment, we have our own Mysterious Big Cats being reported like shadowy ghosts from across the county!

We’re celebrating cats! Especially the Lost Cats of our hills, cats who knew this land in different climates, with warmer– or colder – days and using their stories to look at the world around us as it changes again

As part of the Our Street programme with Buxton’s Heritage Action Zone, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery are bringing these lost cats back to the town. Building up to a wonderful Carnival of the Cats on Sunday 23^rd April (times and meeting points to follow!), there are events making Lost Cat Puppets, masks, small puppets and helping make a large cat puppet

Today we’d like to invite you to make your own Lost Cat puppet, a mini-sabre-tooth to walk beside you. The instructions feel quite long but the making is quite straightforward and you can improvise around the instructions!

You will need:

2 sheets of card (A4 size) – or an empty cereal packet
Some old socks or a T-shirt to cut up ( we also used strips of fur fabric for legs and tails)
Pens for colouring in
Scrap paper and double-sided tape (or a gluestick)
Strong sticky tape
A stapler
Some thin string
2 pea-sticks or other thin canes
A sharp spike for making holes
An empty plastic bottle – about 1 litre size should do

1. First Steps (pawprints?). Cut your T-shirt (or whatever) into strips about 60 cm long (they don’t need to be quite that long) and about 8cm wide – you’ll need 6 of these strips

Take 4 of these strips and tie a knot at one end and then about a finger-length further along the the strip – this gives you a paw and a knee joint.

Lay one sheet of card flat on a table and place your plastic bottle on it with the top at one end of the sheet. Mark where the base of the bottle comes to – hopefully a few cm short of the other end of the sheet. Mark that point – later on this will be the Cat’s bottom! If your bottle is longer than the card, use some strong scissors to cut the top end off the bottle so it will fit.

If you are using a box….go on to #2

2. Fold your card in half lengthways and a small curve off the front corners. Using a cereal packet? Start at one corner and measure along the long side about 30 – 35 cm. You need to cut the box so we have 2 panels joined by the side of the box with those panels being about 35 cm long and maybe 10-12 cm deep. Draw the shape with a pen then cut it out.

3. Now, staple (or tape) your legs into the inside/underside of the card or box. Two should go by those curved corners and the back legs about 6 cm in from the end of the sheet of card – or at the back of the card box. The legs will probably be too long, so look at them and decide how long (or short!) you want the legs to be. Fix them in place and then cut off the extra (keep these bits)

4. Decorate the outside/other side of the cat’s body. Use pens or crayons or torn up paper and tape or glue. Maybe use the extra cloth from the legs? A furry ridge along the cat’s back often looks good. What sort of cats are you making? We have had snow cats that hunt icicle mice, party cats, flowers cats that hide in gardens, as well as stripy tigers and leopard-spotted hunters.

zigzag lines show cuts where a fold is needed

5. Done? Let the body dry if it needs it and look at the head. The pdf attachment has copies of some templates (copies also at the end of this post) but you could draw them yourself. You could also change your mind and decide you’re making a wolf or a bear! Use a piece of card about the same size as the card you used to make the body. Fold the card in half and either draw round a template or draw your own head shape. We use a cut between the ears and a fold there to make a forehead and 2 cuts each side of the “chin” to shape that . Cut and fold to make cat heads. Add teeth? Decorate!

notice the folds that give the head shape

6. Done? Now use one of the last strips of cloth to make a neck – it needs to be longer than a real one would be. Staple the neck to the inside of the body and fix it to the head between the ears (not at the chin). You could also go to the other end and make 2 cuts and fold the cats bottom like a box, giving it a bit of shape. If you’re using a cereal pack you’ve got that rump ready already. Stick or staple on a tail

this puppet has a string for its tail as well

7. Last steps in sight!

Strings: cut 4 pieces of string, maybe 75 cm long. Tie one end or each string to a matchstick.

Head: make a hole about half-way between the eyes and the ears on each side of the face. Thread a string through each hole so that the matchstick catches on the inside. Tape over this to anchor it. Then tie or tape the other nd of the string to a short garden cane. Try to balance this so the head hangs evenly. We’ll adjust for your height in a few minutes

Body: this time we need 2 holes on the cat’s spine, maybe 5 cm in from each end. Again thread and tape the strings. Attach the strings to a longer garden cane (about the same width apart n the cane as they are on the puppets.

Stand up, gently pick up your rods ad find a cat lolloping around beside you. Adjust strings simply by winding the strings onto their rods and taping in place. Aim for a length that has the cat “walking” beside you while you hold the cane about waist height.

8. Fixing the bottle. We’ve been fitting a bottle inside the puppet to keep the card open and give the cat a stronger tummy. Tuck the bottle into that space and tape it in place.

Now practice going for a walk.

Can your cat jump onto a chair

Lie down

Go to sleep

Wake slowly.

Make a noise….