I left my two cats run at large- not closing the spare bedroom door or my sewing area - but when I started to find yarn torn from the tassels on a very old pillow on the bed in the spare room, and I found needles in the carpeting in the livingroom, and the only place those could have come from was my pin cushion in the sewing room - it was time to close doors... so they are off limits now, and the cats know - i believe they even know why it is off limits, and although at first I saw the legs coming under the door pawing at anything to gain a bit of leverage to get in, they now just go lay on my bed and sleep - good place for them. I do miss them setting in the window and looking out - as they would see things and draw my attention to birds or squirrels galavanting around the yard outside. So, now I have to look out on my own periodically if I want to admire the signs of activity out there.
My female cat, Soxie, was my helping hand though - she'd check out my foot pedal and she got it to make a noise - the needle was going up and down and she loved the sound obviously - so she'd jump up on top to see what was making the noise; but none - then back down to the pedal where she could hear noise up on top - hmmmmmmmm, back and forth; one day as she was setting inthe window when I stepped on the pedal to sew a seam, and she saw the needle moving - that was when I paniced! What if she threw out a paw to catch that moving object - so that game had to end right there. She is fascinated with anythign that moves, as is her counterpart Yeller -he is a big yellow striped beautiful play baby - but he does not bother the sewing machine - he is more for his jingle balls, or anything laying around he can bat around; my pets are very entertaining - and I love them dearly - what more can I say?