Apparently the fur collected from brushing a cat, can be used by birds to line their nests. After brushing* your cat, take the gathered fur outside and let it ride the winds. You can do the same with bits of yarn.
Usually I just go outside my back door and distribute it from the porch. But last year I collected a bunch of the fur in a plastic bag. The idea was to place it among the plants in front of my work. There are always birds making nests in the O of the COFFEE sign.
I carried that bag in my work satchel for over a year and finally, today I remembered to pull out the bag. After work as I started out to walk home, I went over to the big cement planters and stuck tufts of fur in the leaves of the plants themselves. I saw a sparrow just a couple of days ago grab an old stem for its nest from right here.Oblivious of other people I moved from planter to planter, pulling out tufts of fur from my little plastic bag and stuffing them into the bushes. A breeze came up, I started pulling off smaller pieces and letting them loose on the wind. The white fur looked like poplar seeds floating on the breeze.
I continued my walk home, methodically plucking little bits of fur and just letting them float off. The whole time I fighting off an image at the edge of my mind's eye of the slightly demented old lady providing for the birdies with the castoff fur from her kitties.
I just kept on walking and then I couldn't fight it off anymore — I have become a crazy old cat lady.*(TIP) I prefer to use a comb to groom my cats. The tabby has a very thick topcoat and undercoat so I use a regular rat-tail comb. My white kitty has very soft fur, so I use a comb for baby hair.
