The pins I use are on a magnetic holder which fits very well, small scissors and all into a large, wide mouth peanut butter jar. I also have taken up all the carpeting in my house and have linoleum. This makes pins, needles, and other small objects very easy to find in the den. It also makes it easy to clean up accidents from the elderly cats. Jean Rabe in Vermont says she nearly lost her beloved Maine Coon cat to an intestinal blockage of thread and plastic.
Plastic can jam up in a pet's intestines, and remain invisible to x-rays.
After Dellie had found that her kitten had batted around a spool of thread and wrapped thread around every chair and table leg in the room, she pulled from his mouth a very long thread which he had swallowed. The next morning, when he began vomitting repeatedly, she rushed him to the vet. The vet found thread wound around the cat's tongue, with both ends in his belly. He feared the thread would tie off part of the cat's intestinal tract and gangrene would set it. He operated, and luckily Dellie's cat survived.