Why We Love This Home-Based Cat Toy Business (And You Should Too!)

Here at meowbox, we are all about supporting independent businesses within the kitty community. This is why, when New York-based Cat Caves by Catie drifted onto our radar, we jumped at the chance to work with this awesome one-woman webshop.

Catie started making the kickers in 2014, with the intention of gifting them to her Instagram cat friends. In an effort to raise donations to kitties in need, she opened a webshop selling cat caves and some leftover kickers. “It wasn’t until my first collection with [Porkchop the Cat] that I realized the kickers could be a real hit,” she says. “They sold out in a day, and I rushed to finish the rest, which then sold out in a day as well!”

The coolest part about Catie’s business is that a portion of all proceeds from her products are donated to animal shelters and rescues around the United States. In the past, she has raised over $460 for organizations such as Cat Room NYC, KittyKind, Cat Haven BR, SGV Humane Society, Hitor Shelter, and Hawaii Happy Cats. When browsing the products on her webshop, you can see for yourself which charities you will be benefitting with each purchase you make.

Considering the high demand for her products, we were surprised and impressed at Catie’s ability to make all of her toys independently, by hand. “All the kickers are sewn by me, in an assembly line process,” Catie explains. “I do everything in steps. First the cutting, then the stitching, flipping them right side out, stuffing with catnip and polyfill, and finally, the feathers!”
For the meowbox order, however—which she describes as a “huge undertaking”—she enlisted the help of “fellow Instagram cat people” Porkchop the Cat, tinaf78, Meow York Kitties, yanksgal23 and impeccable_blah. “They all came over for cat pizza, wine and kicker-stuffing,” she says. “It was a great time, and we got 350 kickers stuffed! Stitching the feathers in was the [messiest] part. There were feathers flying everywhere!” And, of course, her kitties made sure to supervise the affair. “Ziggy and Lambchop were there to inspect everything. They loved sleeping on the boxes filled with kickers.”
What does Catie think about sharing her signature kicker toys with meowbox subscribers? “I can’t wait for them to be packed into the May meowbox for people all over [North America] to enjoy!” she says. And neither can we.
To learn more about Cat Caves by Catie, you can visit her website here.