Cats aren’t known for chasing after Frisbees and bringing them back to chase again. They’re too aloof, and the frisbees are too big and clunky.
my daughter MilliCal is in the living room right now, playing Frisbee with Hestia, the kitten. I gotta get hooked in so can take and send pictures of this (apologies for no pix).
She took the electronics kit she got for Christmas and built a motor circuit, and attached a propellor to the shaft. She powers it up and lets the motor rev until it’s spinning faster enough, then she angles the motor and the propellor (which is just sitting on the shaft, against a stud that keps it rotating) takes off. Then Hestia, who has been watching this with intense interest, runs after the propellor, catches it in her mouth, does a little caper, and brings it back so MilliCal can shoot it off again.
This has apparently been going on for some time, and I wasn’t aware of it, because Hestia started getting excited as soon as MilliCal pulled out the electronics kit box.
“Cats LOVE electronics,” I said, not knowing what was coming.
My kitty used to chase and retrieve* a propeller toy too. It was one of those toys that are given out as party favors. Basically a propeller on a stick that you spin between your hands and then release. I have a video somewhere…
She would almost always chase it, but the retrieval rate was around 50%. Must maintain the famous aloof cat reputation, you know.
Our milk bottles used to come with a plastic ring around the cap. We even called them cat frisbees. My part Burmese would play for about twenty minutes before getting bored, his brother (who owned a friend of mine) could play for over an hour.
My boy’s retrieval rate was closer to 95%, but only if he initiated the game. Chucking an experimental ring was merely an invitation to step on a jagged piece of plastic later that night. In the dark. Barefoot. Every damned time.
My Gideon will play fetch just like a dog if I get out a mousie toy. I found this out quite by accident when he started it all by himself. It’s weird, but goddamn cute.
Hestia does this, too. We go through packs of toy “mice” with incredible speed, because she nauls them, but her favorite game is to have you toss one down the hall or down the stairs, then go running after it. She bounds back with it, dropping it in front of you and nuzzling it with her head asking you to throw it again, and giving a little trill of frustration if you don’t. She was doing this last night at 1 AM. One reason MilliCal came up with the Propellor Frisbee game was that she had finally gotten tired of the “Mousie Game”/ Temporarily.
My cats aren’t much on retrieving ( much to my disappointment, annoying buggers don’t even get into catnip ), but one of them, the “honorary dog”, does like to play tug of war
I don’t know. I now have two cats that play fetch. The oldest one has been doing it since she was a kitten (usually with one of those fur mice you can get a megapack of at any grocery store), and has been known to drop it at our feet and howl at us until someone throws it for her. She brings it back and yowls some more if we don’t throw it again fast enough.
The middle one doesn’t do it at all. She likes to play alone, taking one of her favourite toys (a furry red octopus with a bell), toss it into the air and catch it herself. If we throw it for her, she looks confused, gets frustrated, and marches away.
Our youngest has just learned the concept of fetch - she has a little cloth mouse that she likes to bring us; we throw it, she brings it back. She likes to play with it when she gets it, however, and sometimes we will steal it from her so we can throw it again. She’s only just beginning to let us take it from her more often. She will also fetch with those plastic milk jug rings, furry mice, jingle balls, crinkle balls, sponge balls… just about anything.
I just don’t think it occurs to most people that their kitties might play fetch, since they do mostly seem aloof. If you catch them in just exactly the right mood, however…
…because there’s no sense in throwing a fur mouse at a cat sitting drowsily in the window. But hey, you want to buzz the tower, be my guest!
Pixel is the big one for fetch around our place. Whenever I am sitting and stable for a bit, she’ll drop one of the wife’s ponytail holders at my feet and retreat a few feet to await the throw. She’ll try to snag it in the air, and chase it down if she misses. Trot back, drop at feet, repeat. We wonder who trained who.
