Rocking Kitty: Take Two

Some time ago I created a toy that I call the Rocking Kitty. It was made entirely of Red Oak and was much heavier than I anticipated it would be. So I made only the one, intent on going back to the drawing board.

Here you see the return of Rocking Kitty, made of Mahogany with a hand rubbed Tung Oil finish. When my mother saw the first one I made, she said she’d like one. So some redesigning took place. I looked at the plans and thought, “I can rebuild him.”

“I have the technology. I have the capability to make the world’s second bobble head cat. Rocking Kitty: Take Two will be that cat. Better than he was before. Better. Smaller. Lighter.” OK, I couldn’t resist the Six Million Dollar Man reference there.

Along with the size, I changed the facial expression a bit. Rocking Kitty is supposed to be reaching above his head for something, perhaps a butterfly that’s just out of reach. A gentle push to one side will have him rock back and forth with his arms firmly attached to his body. His head is on a dowel that pivots, and here is my new problem.

In order for his head to remain upright, it is attached to a long piece of wood that is counterweighted at the bottom. In order to keep his head from tilting either forward or backward, the counterweight must be applied evenly on the front and back side of this long piece of wood.

Now, on the original Rocking Kitty, this wasn’t much of a problem. The front-to-back space occupied by the counterweight was proportionate to the overall size. However, on the smaller Kitty, it leaves him seeming a bit, well….robust. Rocking Kitty will need to go back to the drawing board once more for a final redesign before his next incarnation.

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