We who live with cats know they are heat-seeking pleasure lovers, that they will appropriate for themselves the warmest, cushiest places in the house. If an afghan rests on the back of a chair, the cat will lie on it. If a soft pillow is propped on an easy chair, the cat will cuff it down onto the seat and pat it into a bed. Leave a sweater on a chair and the resident puss will rearrange it to make itself a cozy nest.

But orphaned cats waiting to be adopted often live in confinement at animal shelters without the option of ferreting out soft, comfortable places to doze or contemplate the world. That thought prompted me in January to ask readers to knit or crochet and send to me 6-inch squares that could be sewn into bedding or what I have come to refer to as “cat mats.”

Some By Hand readers sent one square and others sent many. I received 100 squares and I knit three for a total of 103. The squares will be sewn together in groups of six to create “cat mats,” which will be donated to the Bangor Humane Society and the Animal Orphanage in Old Town to be used as bedding for the felines.

Staffers at Bangor Humane Society and the Animal Orphanage in Old Town were delighted with the great response and donation of cat mats sewn together by Bangor Daily News Managing Editor Julie Harris Murchison, Arlene Murchison of Saco and myself.

“We use bedding on a daily basis,” Dawn Webber of Brewer, an adoption counselor at Bangor Humane Society, said. “We go through lots of bedding. They [the cats] are always laying on them.” The society is equipped with a community cat room, where the cats can roam about freely and bedding is used there, too.

“[The bedding] is place-mat size,” Webber said. Having the beds, she continued, keeps the cats’ minds busy and active. When a cat is adopted, its bedding goes with it to ease the transition.

Margaret Baker of Old Town’s Animal Orphanage echoed Webber. She said readers who wish to continue knitting for the cats can drop off completed mats at the shelter on Airport Road in Old Town. Some 25 cats are now available for adoption.

Those of you who sent knitted or crocheted squares for cat bedding had your names put into a drawing for the book “Dyeing to Knit” by Elaine Eskesen. I asked Shop Girl to do the honors, and the winning name she drew was Wanda Gary of Greenville.

Special thanks, though, are in order to all the kind-hearted and cat-loving ladies who made and donated squares for the project. They are: Ruth Bulley, Hartland; Shirley Rollins, Exeter; Kathleen Theriault, Corinna; Bren Goode, Bar Harbor; Sylvia Camandona, Stetson; Alberta Owens, Baileyville; Khristine LaChance, Winterport; Lorna Alley, Beals; Carol Muth, Mt. Desert; Patricia Fortuna, Union; Ruth Barker, Veazie; Elena Wilson, Bangor; Laurie Walton, Glenburn; Carole Grant, West Enfield; Diane Taylor, Rockwood; Janice Cowett; Houlton; Ruth Wardwell, Bucksport; Diane Clough, Bridgewater; Eileen Fahey, Seal Harbor; Ginny Sanborn, Greenville; Wanda Gary, Greenville; Delia Kenney, Bangor; Heidi Stafford, Palmyra; Josephine Holmes, Houlton and Helen Young, Old Town.

The squares were created in a variety of washable yarns, including bold colors, soft-toned ombres and earthy brown and white tweeds. Some of the squares are worked in stripes, one is done in an afghan stitch – crocheted – and has a cat embroidered on it, several are done in cable patterns, two have bright red hearts knit into a purple ground, others are done in a basket-weave stitch. It is evident that every square was made with love.

One woman apologized for the square she made because it wasn’t as perfectly shaped as she might wish it to be. “I only learned to crochet two weeks ago,” she wrote in a note enclosed with the square. To you, my dear, I reply, “Bravo, and keep that crochet hook cranking!! Soon you will be whipping out afghans.”

Another knitter wrote, “I was slowed down [knitting the squares] by my own kitties who love to ‘help’ knit. Any mistakes in the work are theirs, not mine!”

The woman who knit the purple squares decked out with red hearts – Red Hat Society colors – joked in a note accompanying her work that perhaps the mat in those colors could be placed with an elderly cat. (Or maybe one having a midlife crisis?)

We also have red, white and blue squares – perhaps that mat can go to a feline fan of the Patriots.

Local opportunities for knitting or crocheting for charity are many and include making shawls as part of the prayer shawl ministry, making clothing for premature babies as part of a March of Dimes project, making blankets for the Linus Project, making mittens, hats and scarves to donate to homeless shelters, or knitting mittens for school classrooms for children to use when they forget to bring mittens from home. Or perhaps you’ll get some friends together, knit or crochet more squares and assemble afghans to raffle as a fundraiser for a favorite charitable cause.

Thanks again, and bless you.

Snippets

. Organizers are encouraging volunteers who want to stitch for the March of Dimes Preemie Project to make items of clothing – dresses, pants, gowns or sweaters. They have a backlog of hats and blankets. To learn more, e-mail sschulberger@marchofdimes.com, or call 989-3376.

Ardeana Hamlin may be reached at 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.