Friday DIY: Classy Cat Bridle Hooks

Happy Friday, everyone! Earlier this week it rained absolutely cats and dogs, on actually the same day Charlie got all his spring shots and such. 

pictured: the pinnacle of neat + tidy organization

I figured he might as well get a day off from work -- but still wanted to go out and check on him, take off his rain sheet, and maybe putter around the tack locker a little bit. 

sir was feeling feverish after his spring shots and didn't finish his food***
(***except it turns out they put his food directly on top of manure that was in the bucket, what the actual fuck people why are you so fucking bad at this?!? gahh)

And.... I'm glad I did, bc poor pony was feverish and very very sad. Skipped his dinner*** and everything. Apparently a couple horses were having more of a reaction -- maybe bc of the downpour all day? -- so the vet suggested I give Charlie a couple (12) CCs of banamine and check his temp again in the morning. 

got a little medical assistance to bring him down from 102.4*

This was actually the first time I even used this bottle of banamine after buying it last summer during Charlie's anaplasmosis episode. The medicine comes in a couple different formulas -- and was recommended that I get the injectable version bc even if I myself don't ever plan on injecting IV, you can still squirt the stuff directly into the horse's mouth. So that's what I did!

onto today's story: those poor overworked plastic white hooks never stood a chance

So I fussed on Charlie a little bit, dried off the rain soaked areas of his coat, fluffed up his hay nets, and basically left him alone to chill while I tinkered around and kept an eye on him. 

disassembling the carnage. keep track of the fasteners tho bc they can be reused!

And the focus of my tinkering??? The poor abused plastic coat hooks presumably installed in my tack locker before the dawn of time, when dinosaurs roamed earth. These hooks carried a mammoth load with all my hoarding and whatnot, and finally gave up the ghost last week.

not gonna lie -- this whole fandango was pretty friggin heavy...

Bc, ahem, turns out --- I may or may not have a silly number of bridles for my one single horse LOL. Only two of which are even in regular rotation right now.... 

Plus I'd gotten lazy about hanging all other sorts of odds and ends on hooks too. So ya know. Not super surprising they'd finally succumb to gravity. 

wait a second, is that..... what i think it is??

Anyway. I like to consider myself somewhat "resourceful." Possibly you might find other alternate word choices springing to mind LOL, but my blog, my vocabulary. 

playing around with different configurations. this is highly precise stuff, guys

And as I sat around ruminating on what sort of hardware should replace those hooks --- I remembered reading way back a long time ago about people using tuna cans or pet chow cans as hooks. 

bzzt bzzzt!!!

Obviously, as the owner of what often feels like A LOT of cats (realistically just two, but still), I happen to have unlimited access to a supply of these exact little round tins. So --- after a couple days of saving them up, I had enough (including a variety of sizes) to tinker around with various potential configurations. 

ta da!! 
also i *swear* that's not left over cat food in there -- just wood shavings. i swearrrrr lol

And. Ya know. It really couldn't be simpler. I sorta measured out the spacing. And sorta marked out the locations for each tin. But.... Also just kinda winged it. 

testing out the spacing!

The spacing isn't exactly even, and none of the tins are level with each other (whoops). But -- honestly they actually work surprisingly well. I really wasn't sure if these smaller sized tins would be ok vs the more standard tuna can size -- but actually they seem perfect!

my middle name is 'engineer'

I also used a pair of pliers to flatten down the sharp edges inside each can, tho if I manage to slice a finger open it'll be my own fault LOL.

is it just me, or does the 'rose gold' give it a certain je ne sais quoi???

The cans are surprisingly secure, and don't spin at all. Sure, the middle two are slightly close, but I can still yank bridles on and off each individual can without any others falling off in the process. 

So. Ya know. I'm gonna call that a win LOL. Tho -- uh, I also reserve the right to tear it all right back down again should a more, erm, elegant solution present itself at some future date haha.