I have a cat (or she has me, still not quite sure of the relationship after all these years). I bring home toys to keep her amused, but inevitably, I end up giving the undestroyed items to a neighbor for her cat. What does she like to play with? Not the catnip mouse (shredded that puppy in minutes - I hadn’t realized how long her claws had become), not the raffia ball (she managed to unwind all the coiled raffia, again with the sharp claws), and certainly not the overstuffed pillow with the jingly bells (cat barf - 'nuff said).
So what is Purr Monster (aka Mud, but she is curled up and emitting visible purr vibrations at the moment) taken to playing with recently instead?
[ul]
[li] An empty Diet Coke can - try hearing this rattling around the tile floor in the middle of the night - she had found it next to the recycle bin.[/li][li] A belt loop from an old pair of blue jeans (cut off since all my belts were wider than the loops) - fun to throw up in the air and catch[/li][li] Various frogs, anoles, and geckos that make their way into the house - Woohoo! Like the bunny at a dog track![/li][li] One of my oven mitts - stuck her head inside and tried to back out of it, but was stuck in it and just kept walking backwards.[/li][li] A macaw feather (bird no longer attached)[/li][li] The Black Queen from a cheap, plastic chess set - ignores the other pieces, but only goes after the Black Queen[/li][li] A box of magnetic Make-yer-own-Shakespearean-insults - this is more of the knock it off the table so screech-owl has to pick them all up again. And again. And again. And again. (I’d hide it, but: 1) I’d forget it if it wasn’t in sight, and B) it’s kinda fun.)[/li][/ul]
I do keep the dangerous objects well out of the way (she liked chasing rubber bands, but I didn’t want her to start chewing on them, and all the scissors and stuff are well out of the way). And I did buy a new oven mitt - wasn’t gonna touch anything with that after she had been biting it and throwing it about the kitchen and living room. Funny thing is, I remember hanging it on the wall: either it fell, or she had jumped up and knocked it off (she’s done things like that before, like her six foot vertical leap to attack a frog plastered to the outside of the sliding glass patio door). Great cat, but I wonder what else she is getting into when I am gone. I haven’t noticed any odd charges on my credit cards. So far.
So what handy household items do double duty as pet playthings at your place?
Gallon water bottle pull-tabs are popular, snapple-bottle clear plastic rings, and those crinckley supermarket bags are good for my cat as well. He loves to lie down on them and lick them.
The most popular cat toys at my house are:
–Those paper covered wire twisty-ties that you use to close up the bulk food bag, or the plastic covered ones which are used to bundle cords. These get tossed and bandied about like nobody’s business.
–Any wadded up piece of paper, preferably a receipt. This turns into instant soccer on the linoleum.
–Wiggly fingers under the sheets.
–A coffee cup is really fun to butt your head up against when someone is drinking from it.
–I swear there is a beacon on my bladder that, when full, broadcasts some sort of “pounce on me!” signal to the kitties.
My cat plays with plastic grocery bags and balled-up socks. I have a hair scrunchie made of some kind of fur that he just can’t resist, and after weeks of trying to keep it from him I decided it was easier to give up and call it a cat toy. He also loves to attack the newspaper, but only if I’m reading it.
Funny, I just said something like this to my boyfriend about half an hour ago.
We buy our cat all sorts of little toys, but he only likes one, the feather-tipped fuzzy ribbon on a stick.
Otherwise, he plays with EVERYTHING else. We live in a small apartment, and it’s really pointless to even try keeping it picked up, because ten minutes later, everything’s knocked to the floor again.
Current favorites include
-a plastic clothespin
-straws…he steals them right from your cup and can chase one for hours
-cardboard boxes, he sharpens his claws on them
-newspapers…he pounces on the pictures…I guess they move a la Harry Potter
-the fishbowl. I have one Betta that is constantly harassed by a big white thing that likes to drink the water. I put the lid from the Crock-Pot on his bowl, but a favorite activity for the cat is to knock the lid off (causing a very loud CLANG noise) and wait to see how long it takes the people to come running.
The problem is, he’s deaf as a stone, and can’t hear us say “NO!”. I have tried every training method I can think of. He’s hopeless.
I had forgotten the wadded up paper, as well as the plastic bags (these I have to keep away from her, since she now like to chew them up). But I do pity a small clip-on ALF (remember the clip-on furry Koalas from the late 70s? I have one shaped like ALF [from the tv series]). I am very surprised that most of the plush is still attached, since it gets batted into walls, under the couch and flung wildly about the house.
I just put some catnip on her sisal scratching board, so she’s out like a light right now. At least I can get some typing done without her batting ALF about and distracting me from my typing.
Funny, this happens sometimes, I was JUST, I mean just thinking of posting this sort of thread within the last 24 hours.
I’ve been getting a lot of mileage out of an old Ace bandage lately. Roll it up slowly, then throw the coil when completely wound. Repeat. This can be done handlily while watching TV.
More and more I’m finding the not-intended-to-be-toys things are a LOT cheaper than designated Cat Toys, and the designated Cat Toys are never played with much. I’m looking forward to hearing others’ ideas.
Tissue paper. The sort they wrap your clothes in, at the store. Christmas is a wonderland for my kitties because there’s tissue paper everywhere for them to shred and/or sit upon.
Any cabinet is fun on tap.
The best toy I ever bought my cats isn’t entirely free. I started feeding the hummingbirds and mourning doves, etc. out on the balcony. For about two dollars a month my cats are utterly fascinated by the birds I’ve attracted. All day long they watch the birdies through the screen, wiggling their butts, making cack-cack noises. Kinda scary, especially when you consider what that sort of concentration could do if focused on something like world domination.
Ashes, Ashes’s post reminded me of another free cat-toy. My two boys, President Carter and Sy, only get to go outside when it’s warm and I’m home (poor abused felines). Today was a bright warm spring day here in the Seattle area, and President Carter was amusing himself (and me) by chasing bugs in the lawn. Great flailing leaps with a lot of that cack-cack wiggle butt in there.
My spoiled kitten extraordinaire likes anything that makes a rattling sound - tissue paper, plastic bags, newspapers, crumpled paper, empty soft drink cans. He loves Sundays when I come back from the markets and he has christened them “New Bag Day” which is celebrated by rolling in plastic bags and eating flowers. He also likes those pens with fluffy feathers at the end, so occasionally I’ll find bits of feather lying around.
Now I KNOW that I am really tired. I misread the post and damn near sprayed Diet Coke on the monitor.
At least I know my cat is not the only one with simple tastes in toys. But I am not catching bugs for her to chase in the house. The frogs and geckos are bad enough (I did find where they get it, but patching the hole is gonna be hell. At least it’s a bit of amusement for her.
Miss Kitty (and the Miss is very important) has played with:
Both bolt covers from the toilet
rocks
litter pearls
the dog’s tail (dangerous one that, as the dog weighs four times more than she does)
tissue paper (we had tissue paper on the floor for months)
my hair
correction tape (which we really try to keep away from her, since we doubt that it is good for her, but she thinks that it is hers. Many fights arise from that one)
the Sunday paper
twine (another one we try to keep from her, but one day, she stole it–three times)
paper
suitcases
my fish (luckily she has not found out how to actually get to them yet, but she REALLY likes trying to figure out how)
toes
With her designated toys, she loves to carry them all upstairs at night and all downstairs during the day. Since she is a spoiled cat, this takes a while. Wand toys make a horrible racket at three AM. She also likes to carry arounf her flutterballs (fleece toys with feathers) as if they were birds–by the “neck.” She is so PROUD. Very cute.
Not quite the same thing, but I learned long ago that instead of buying those made-for-dog stuffed animals at the pet store, I go to the local equivalent of the Salvation Army and buy a whole pile of small stuffed animals. The made-for-dogs ones are between $3 and $5 each. The ones I buy cost me maybe 25-50 cents each. My dogs LOVE them! I think the used-by-a-child scent makes 'em even MORE wanted than the brand new ones.
The only caveat is that I pick out the ones without big bows, ribbons, or buttons that could easily be chewed off or swallowed. They also get thrown away if/when any plastic eyes get chewn off. For 25 cents each, I can throw a LOT of 'em away.
It’s great to look over your shoulder and see a Coke case roll its way thumpingly across the floor.
Boxes are toys. Especially pop cases. Plastic bags are toys. The plastic strip things that hold frozen juice lids on- they’re wonderful toys. The other cat is a toy. Beads (we try to keep them away from her), chainmail, flyers…
Chainmail as a cat toy?!? Criminey, what do you have there, a minature cougar? That stuff isn’t exactly easy to bat about the floor or toss in the air.
And what’s a flyer? Paper airplane? Balsa wood glider?
HyperKitty (one of Mud’s many other names) has discovered a small piece of mango that had fallen on the floor. She’s so cute, poking at it, sniffing it, licking her paw, and THERE IT GOES, ACROSS THE KITCHEN FLOOR!! I swear it’s like watching a hockey game.
Back before our last golden retriever went to Doggie Heaven, her tail used to be our cat’s favorite toy. She’d stand there and wag her tail, and the cat would sit on the footrest and bat at it. By the hour. It was seriously cute, need I mention?
We also fed birds on the deck, and the cat would hide under the barbecue grill cover and watch the birds. Every once in a while she’d go after a sparrow, and fortunately never actually fell off the balcony in the process. She didn’t do nearly as much damage to the bird population as she wanted to, but had great pleasure in the attempt.
My cat’s favorite toys are soda bottle caps, milk jug rings and caps, and the laser pointer (highly recommended). The laser pointer was the best 10 bucks we ever spent on a cat toy, he never gets tired of chasing the dot and he can’t destroy it!
