A purse made from cat fur? What will they come up with next?

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From a certain perspective, we suppose the difference between wool and pet fur isn’t actually that substantial. Both come from mammals, right?

Right ... we suppose. (We still find the idea creepy to the extreme, but apparently enough people are clamoring for pet-fur sweaters that Amazon carries a book explaining how you can make your own.)

Now a South Carolina company has escalated the pet-sweater idea to an entirely new level of creepiness. Meet Catty Shack Creations, a handbag company whose material of choice is ‘recycled’ pet fur.

‘We have turned the unwanted into the coveted,’ Catty Shack’s website explains. ‘What was once destined for ruin is again made into that for which it was originally created: an object of beauty, an object of purpose.’

Owners provide fur from their cat or dog and choose a handbag design (pricing ranges from $45 for the smallest bag to $300 for the largest). In about three weeks, they receive a finished product that looks like this.

And if you don’t have your own cat or dog? Don’t worry: Catty Shack will make you a handbag with fur from someone else’s pet. But how will you stop the nightmares?

-- Lindsay Barnett