I have a dozen or so of these, in all different colors and styles. I’ve got a couple of dogs as well, and I’ve even seen a bunny! Most places try to pass them off as “toothbrush holders” or “planters,” but actually they were air fresheners. (Though I do use one to hold my toothbrush!)
The tail acted as a wick for whatever kind of gooey air freshener liquid was in the body of the kitty, and pulled the scent up and into the air. When you find one with a tail, it’s a fairly rare occurrence. They are pretty common, otherwise.. I would guess almost every collector has a few or has seen them around. Every one is different. I have them in pink, blue, green, red, gray, etc. The amount of color vs. white on each also varies. Yellow seems to be the color I see most. Too bad they don’t make them anymore, modern air fresheners are pretty boring in comparison!
If you see one with a much larger hole in the bum, those were probably planters, usually with a wacky cactus sticking out the back to form the “tail.”
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Allee Willis
Wow! I absolutely never knew that these felines with their butts up in the air were actually air fresheners. I’ve had a couple and have always bitched that the hole wasn’t big enough to get more than a single pencil or toothbrush in. How happy am I that the mystery is finally solved?!
Is the fleecy thing popping out of there now the original wick?
Nessa
Oh, I’m so glad I could help you solve a mystery! Yes, this one is sporting it’s original wick/tail. I even gave it a good sniff just to see if any vestige of air freshener scent remained, but there’s no scent left that I could smell. Hehe.
I have no idea how many animals or other creatures may have been made into ceramic air fresheners like this one, I assume there were many more variations which I probably would not recognize.
windupkitty
oh no kidding! my great grandmother had these all over her house and i never knew what they were! i always thought they were some sort of tiny oil lamp or something…..wish i had smelled them…her house always smelled of food, so maybe they were full of home cookin’ ………