your cat's favorite toy

I'm not counting bugs as toys because they don't last very long.

* this is the "donut with a ball inside" -- mine doesn't have the dangly attachment on top, though. They go NUTS over this, chasing the ball around and around and around and around . . .

Updating now . . .

he pants (and once until he started gagging). I'd feel guilty introducing him to a laser. He's not stable enough.

that we sprinkle catnip in every day. We call it the 'crack house.' :)

which is a string, really. We spent lots of $$ on cool expensive toys, and they still come back to the string. Cats... :P

And I hear what you're saying. I don't even buy my ferrets toys. An old smelly sock, and they're happy.

TlalocW

We call them 'sparkly toys' and the cats love them. Something about how they tickle their inside of their mouths when they carry them around fulfills some inner need.

I can set a cardboard box on the floor and Chess, my cat, can have so much fun jumping in it and hiding. :-)

I don't buy her toys anymore. She also likes to bat around the plastic things off of milk cartons. :-)

and laundry baskets (espcially upside down w/them underneath). Mine also love cardboard boxes. There's a special one we sprinkle catnip in every day. We call it the 'crack house.' :)

Quinn goes batshit for them :)

Or the deluxe model - chenille stems from the craft store.

please...

:P

He figured out he couldn't "capture" the laser pointer in about two minutes, and never wanted to chase it since. Of course, he used to be feral, so he really has a thing about being able to chew on what he catches. He's also almost obnoxiously smart (at one point I had to lock my dorm room windows so he didn't release the latch and open them).

:eyes:

fricking cats - can't live with them don't want to live without them

I can't set one down without the cats stealing it

I try to give her other things, but she will have none of that. :)

Does she like furry mice of different colors as well? I have one cat who is hooked on the color purple. He picks the purple ball with the bell, the purple pom pom and the purple furry mouse each time.

and she wasn't interested. Maybe it is the color she loves...This could turn into an interesting experiment... :hi:

My purple addict is siamese. He's also a neat freak, he's always gathering up all the toys and putting them in one specific corner in a neat pile.

I inherited her from a friend a couple years ago after they had kids. Here she is, my baby, Tuna:

And a fat little girl, too! My female "mutt" is a little butterball, also. :)

Even though it's not as healthy...

:)

Maybe you've had that forever, but I'm new here. That would look great on the back of a car.

Hope you like cats. Lots of kitty threads here.

:hi:

My cat's name is Toona, and she has nearly identical facial and tail markings

(she's the bigger cat)

He is a real sweet boy, help me raise to sets of kittens I had to bottle feed.

They're both so pretty. Tuna is a nickname for Petunia, my kitty's full name. My friend's daughter called her Tuna when she was just learning to speak and the nickname stuck. :)

:hi:

:rofl:

Suffice to say she comes when called?

She knows her name... She loves to come right at me and she's very vocal. :hi:

:)

n/t

Must be the "krinkly" noise.

:silly:

whom, if they placed a paper bag open on the floor, would run into it so fast that he burst the bottom of the bag and race right through it!

If I was a cat I'd do that too.

Just so you know, my Birman is 21 lbs. and it takes alot just to get him moving!

Mack the Cat. Mack as in "Mack truck". :wow:

:)

Evie LOOOOVES twistie ties, the kind that are laminated with black plastic. They never die, they make a neat noise, and they can be stashed under area rugs.

Socrates has his very own tennis ball, which he just killed again a few minutes ago. We told him it was Cheney's head/*'s ass/Rove's head/Rummy's head/etc. :D

And there's the occasional toy mouse and catnip bags, which everyone enjoys. You've seen the remains of the last toy mouse (ghastly!), and the catnip bags have to be made of burlap, or they die instantly. :scared:

My beloved cat, Stoops, can't seem to get enough.

Do you trim Stoops's claws regularly? :scared:

Claws don't come into it. The only time she ever pulls them out is during a confrontation with Oscar, my wife's beloved but unbelievably stupid cat.

Someone documented it better than I could ever have done:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=243&topic_id=7884

Other than the strings on clothes (sweatpants, wrap skirts, etc.) fur mice are the only inanimate thing she'll play with.

My girls play on it like a jungle gym.... one sits on top and the other insie teh tube and they make jabs....

but his favorite is aluminum foil balls.:shrug:

If it has catnip, they're on it.

those little plastic whiffle balls with a bell inside. She loved to play fetch with them. Made me laugh everytime I would throw one and she would bring it back because I had never had a cat that would do that

I miss her.


*******Fritzie************Fritzie & Sheridan************BlueBoy and Tigger*******

is a Q-tip.

she will literally run her 20 year old feline behind across the room and grab it out of my hand.

We have to hide them from her.

what one likes best are my very expensive poofy cosmetic brushes that I used to keep in a mug on my vanity table. He'd take them in the middle of the night. One I have yet to recover. Now I have to keep them in the drawer, the goofy twit.

Best damn kitty toy ever.
Three or four cats can play at one time without
getting in each other's way.

she loves it when I drop a pen on the kitchen floor.

Bats it around for hours.

This is the fourth cat to LOVE this toy, so I am convinced it is a winner.

Take an old tube sock. Put a small pill bottle in the toe with a couple of beans inside it--you want it to rattle. Stuff the rest of the sock with other old socks alternated with cat nip. Tie a knot in the top of the sock. It is gonna end up looking like a big old sausage made of socks.

Sprinkle with catnip to introduce it to the cat and once the cat is stoned and flops over, put the toy (gently) on top of the cat so the cat will wrestle with it.

I give these to cats because I do not want them to think my arm or hand is something to wrestle with. If the cat wants to play, I give them this toy and sooner or later they get to the point that they'll walk up and GRAB the toy with nobody even in the room.

It lets them practice the killing bite that cats use as natural predators, plus it lets them grab with the front paws and rake with the hind claws--a normal cat thing when fighting or hunting.


Laura

You sound like a real cat whisperer to have thought of this. Maybe I'll fashion a dog's countenance on the finished project to make it fun and empowering.

It's more like cat screamer! :)

I lived for 17 years with one of the MOST obnoxious cats on the planet. I swear she was a year old before she realized her full name was not "Tillie you bitch." To be fair to her, she was a rescue that had been horribly abused. By the time she got to me she hated most men and only tolerated a few women. She also had EVERY bad habit you can think of in a cat.

Rather than scream at her all the time I sat down and learned about cats and why they behave the way they do. 99% of the time I think it can be traced back to instinctual behaviors be they fighting instincts or hunting or even just survival. At least with her it sure was.

Anyhow, this toy came about because I had arms that looked like raw hamburger all the time. She had no idea of how to grab at anything without her claws out, plus she bit EVERYTHING. I had to do something and this was the outcome.

She loved it so much she'd drag it from room to room. I made a few for other cats who were not quite as crazed as she was, and they were BIG hits with them too. I did find, however, that socks from the human companion were a big plus. The cats would accept those much faster. (My tube socks did NOTHING for other people's cats...)

Good luck with it--it may not be a huge hit right away--or it might be. I think a lot of it depends on the cat and how much they like to wrestle.


Laura

the kittens LOVE big Ivey's tail... Ivan's our 20 lb tuxedo, he loooooves the kittens and seems to thump his tail to a beat that sends the kittens into a frenzy. They attack his tail, and he just sits there, continually thumping his tail while three little girl kitties fling themselves at it.

Very cute.

Otherwise, they used to love furry mice, but those seem to have gotten old. Ivan's the favorite toy now.

loves those rabbit foot things that have a little bead keychain on them. He likes them so much my husband found a novelty company and bought a box full of them. He knew what it was too and nearly made himself crazy when he saw a gross of rabbits' feet!!! We had to ration them; it took him about 5 years to lose them all.

The vast majority ended up under the refrigerator and/or washer and dryer. He would lob them under the washer then pace back and forth in front of the machine, moaning and howling until we rescued it for him.
When we would lift up the washer to get them out we would have to physically restrain him to keep him from diving under the washing machine.

He used to steal my daughter's "my Little Pony" brushes and combs too.
that was hysterical..we were fussing at her for leaving them on the floor, and she kept saying she didn't do it..then we caught him stealing them from the basket she kept them in.

Lewis likes the plastic tear strips that come off the ziplock cheese packages from Kraft or Sargento. He will stash one of those and play with it for weeks. He also likes to kill toilet paper and paper towels.

It is worth a full hour of playtime. It is most desirable next to a closed door, where he can knock it under and meow at me to come get it back for him. He loves the feeling of trying to grab it and it being difficult.

I'll have to try the cat toy you mentioned. I try stuff all the time, and he has little interest in most of them. I hate milk, lactose intolerant in fact, but get it just for the tabs.

:)

Whenever I go away for a few days, "someone" takes my socks out for a walk, if I forgot to put them away. They end up by the water dish.

Binky looves my shoelaces - especially on the leather shoe-boots.

Oreo will find any small basket or box, and curl up in it. She once adopted the basket full of napkins as her very own. But lately, she's adopted my antique doll buggy. :)

Roo (rest in peace, sweetie) loved a jingle-bell, tied to a long piece of string. he'd swat it like a baseball. Damn, he was good.

Sometimes he wakes me up by dropping a sponge ball right at my head--for me to throw it so he can fetch it.

and here's my Sophie's second favorite toy-

ponytail holders, clips, etc. My girls are bad about leaving them out where the cats can get them. I'm always taking something away from a cat. Drives me crazy. They can really torment the hell out of a bug too. Catch, release, chase, repeat ad naseum. Almost makes you feel sorry for the bug.

It costs $4.00 but it takes less than a dime to make. My dog enjoys the toy as much as my cats do.

She went nuts for that thing when she was a kitten. And I couldn't get enough either, seeing how far up the wall I could get her to leap with some creative wrist flicking.

Sadly, she seems to be too old and above that sort of thing nowdays. I can never get her to play anymore, the usual tricks of grabbing her tail, or her outstretched foot as she licks herself simply elicit a look of ultimate boredom.

The only time I can get her to play now is when she gets jealous seeing me with another cat. Then she galumphs over and tries to chase the string or get the ball or whatever. But then it's only kind of pathetic ...

no stuffing left... just this nasty little piece of skin he threw around the house. That and lizards. I miss him :cry: