5. MAKE THE PAPER TOY
Kitty-wise, the most important part of this build is the actual toy that the cat plays with. You can use
almost anything, from a feather or piece of cardboard to a lightweight manufactured toy. Just make sure
the materials are 100% kitty friendly. And you can enhance your kitty’s fun by adding some catnip!
5a. Draw a bird, or whatever you think might interest your kitty,
onto a piece of paper. Once you have your final design, tape
2 pieces of paper together and cut the design out of both, to
make 2 mirror images. I decided to add a few white paper
highlights, and you could easily add additional detail with
nontoxic markers.
5b. Add plenty of nontoxic glue to one side of a paper bird.
Center the guitar wire loop in the middle, and then add the other
bird cutout to the opposite side to create a paper-wire-paper
birdie sandwich.
5c. Press the birdie between books or in binder clips while the
glue dries. I decided to clip it and let it sit overnight. The end
result was a durable and appealing birdie for my cat to attack!
NOTE: Go to
makezine.com/22/kittytwitty to download papercraft bird
costumes for your Kitty Twitty.
6. SET UP THE SOFTWARE
6a. Sign up for a new Twitter account (
twitter.com), following the instructions to create a username and
password. It’s simple and free!
6b. Download and install the Arduino software (
arduino.cc/en/Main/Software).
6c. Download and install NeoCat’s Twitter Library for Arduino (
arduino.cc/playground/Code/
TwitterLibrary), which makes it easy for the code to connect to Twitter.
89 Make:
