# My keychain laser is the greatest purchase I have ever made **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2003, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439 "2003-03-06T05:51:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/1 "2003-03-06T05:51:21Z")
…simply because it drives my cat Porkchop absolutely _batshit_. She can not get enough of that dancing, scampering red dot. She will literally chase it in circles until she can’t see straight. Great exercise for the kitty and endless fun for me! Way better than TV. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/2 "2003-03-06T06:44:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ogre \* > \*\*… > Great exercise for the kitty \*\* Do you figure you owe the guy who got granted [this patent](http://www.delphion.com/details?pn=US05443036__) some cash? -AmbushBug ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/3 "2003-03-06T06:48:05Z")
Not I, since the laser came specifically ID’ed as a “kitty toy.” It’s up to the distributor to make sure he gets royalties. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![lokij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@lokij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lokij)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/4 "2003-03-06T06:53:49Z")
Heh, my sister got me the best present ever for the holidays. A green laser pointer. It rules. I can illuminate low flying clouds and on a good clear dark night you can see the beam shoot straight up… looks like you can point all the way to the stars. MUCH cooler and brighter than the red pointers. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/5 "2003-03-06T07:05:40Z")
Well, lah-de-dah. 🙂 Cool. ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/6 "2003-03-06T11:16:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lokij \* > \*\*Heh, my sister got me the best present ever for the holidays. A green laser pointer. It rules. I can illuminate low flying clouds and on a good clear dark night you can see the beam shoot straight up… looks like you can point all the way to the stars. MUCH cooler and brighter than the red pointers. \*\* :eek: How much does one of those cost? Shit, I want one! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/7 "2003-03-06T12:20:13Z")
> [@](#): > > How much does one of those cost? Shit, I want one! The cost has come down quite a bit. I just my Edmund’s catalog yesterday, and it’s just under $200. A friend of mine bought one and dissected it. Most of the interior is taken up by the 2 AA batteries. The diode-pumped laser attached to a frequency doubling crystal at the tip is incredibly tiny. The youngest of our three cats _loves_ to play with the spot. Our oldest is too savvy. When I projected the dot in front of her, she looked up to my hand, effectively said “_You’re_ doin’ that,” and went back to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/8 "2003-03-06T12:34:27Z")
You can get a green laser pointer [here](http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/) ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/9 "2003-03-06T12:56:50Z")
I thought the green lasers were illegal or against FDA regulations. Or are the one’s you’re talking about different than the green ones mentioned in [this MailBag report?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlaserpoint.html) The specs (as per **kferr’s** site) seem to put it in a legal class, but I thought they were the dangerous ones. The regular red laser pointers are about $5 at the dollar store. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/10 "2003-03-06T13:45:11Z")
Much better than those rings you had to charge daily. And what was up with that wimpy “In brightest day, in darkest night…” poem anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3ab097/32.png) [@Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khan)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/11 "2003-03-06T13:48:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kferr \* > \*\*You can get a green laser pointer [here](http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5a47/) \*\* Wow. A hunnerd-twenty bucks really puts the kaibosh on the wow factor. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/12 "2003-03-06T14:53:04Z")
My ferrets are spectacularly bored by a laser pointer. Strangely, they barely even look at the dot - instead, they tilt their heads, and seem to look at the beam, following it up to the pointer. (No, they don’t look directly at the laser, they’re either standing off to the side at the time or I shift the beam so they won’t accidentally look directly in it.) Once they’ve figured that out, they aren’t so interested any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/13 "2003-03-06T17:38:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eats\_Crayons \* > \*\*I thought the green lasers were illegal or against FDA regulations. Or are the one’s you’re talking about different than the green ones mentioned in [this MailBag report?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mlaserpoint.html) \*\* The Mailbag report only mentions being banned in the UK and in US schools. Nothing about the FDA. [This site](http://www.users.qwest.net/~dean2/whattono.html) mentions a caution on Class II lasers and a warning on Class IIIa. One could assume from this that Class IIIb lasers are indeed banned by the FDA. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/14 "2003-03-06T17:53:58Z")
My dog knows good and well what’s causing the dot, but that doesn’t stop her. In fact it makes it worse. When I’m tired of holding in that button and set it on the end table, she’ll sit there staring at the pointer…then at me…then at the pointer…then at me… When I’m rested up, she’s rarin’ to go dot hunting again. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/15 "2003-03-06T20:13:10Z")
Alas, the last thing anyone could ever call Porkchop is “bright.” She’s as dumb as a post, but no matter…she’s just so damn _cute_. In any case, she’s perfectly aware that the dancing red dot is something I do…as soon as I pull the laser out of the desk drawer, she immediately starts looking around wildly. It doesn’t matter a bit. 🙂 The greatest thing ever was when I got her to repeatedly sprint in circles around one of my acoustic guitar cases, and everytime I’d run the laser up the wall at one end, she’d jump madly at it, pull a Matrix-style wall-walk, come down, and chase it again. I swear she did that 10 times in a row once. She was a pantin’ little kitty after that one, and I actually put the laser away out of concern for her health. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/16 "2003-03-06T21:19:11Z")
My girl cat Etta is exactly the same way. I pick up the pointer from my side table and she tenses into “hunting stance” and starts scanning the floor. If I catch her just right I can get her to gallop from the kitchen to the front door in one swoop. Then she chases it up and down the walls and would I think do it until she dropped from exhaustion. My boy cat Archy plays sometimes but he’s a lazy fatass so it’s harder to get him motivated. Unless there’s catnip. ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/17 "2003-03-06T22:01:15Z")
the elusive red fly. My cat in college would chase it, and then after it disappeared, he’d hunt all over the house for it, remaining in attack mode for hours. It got him so agitated, I just stopped using it, because it wasn’t worth the grief after I didn’t want to play anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/18 "2003-03-06T22:49:34Z")
I want one, but I just know if my preschool son got his hands on it, he would immediately shine it in his eye. :eek: For cat-tormenting, a sunbeam through the window reflected off my watch-glass works a treat. The family name for this teaser is “Tinkerbell” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![3trew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/13edae/32.png) [@3trew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3trew)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/19 "2003-03-06T23:20:44Z")
My cat jumped on the dot, removed his paws carefully, sniffed the floor, and never ever fell for it again. If you’d like to play a different version of cat-and-mouse, feel free to bring the pointer to a theatre where I’m trying to watch a movie and use it to highlight the breasts of the female lead. It may take a while, but I will find you. No charges were pressed. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439/20 "2003-03-06T23:37:40Z")
> [@](#): > > My cat jumped on the dot, removed his paws carefully, sniffed the floor, and never ever fell for it again. This is simply a case of a brighter-than-average cat and a completely clueless owner. You’re supposed to _move_ the dot, dummy! 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-keychain-laser-is-the-greatest-purchase-i-have-ever-made/159439.md?page=2)