Thomas' very own toy

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Today I went to a major pet supply warehouse's outlet store in search of pet toys for the cats.

What I had was ratty and most of them had disappeared under major appliances.

I got rather large catnip chicken, a "forest creature" that resembles a red panda, also filled with catnip, 2 fabric catnip mice, and 2 kitty teasers. One with feathers on a wand and one with satin cords on a wand.

I got home and Squeaky went nuts over the catnip mouse I gave her. I showed Thomas the chicken. He sniffed it. He rubbed on it. He nibbled on it. He purred.

Then? He snatched it out of my hand and took off with it! He ran around the living room once, came back into the kitchen and proceeded to roll around the kitchen floor with HIS catnip chicken rubbing his face in it and kicking madly at it with his hind paws.

When he was good and stoned, he got up wandered all over the trailer carrying his chicken with him. When he tired out, he hopped up on the bed and fell asleep, using his catnip chicken as a pillow.

He's since woken up and is again carrying his chicken around. Makes me ask myself when the last time was that Thomas had a toy of his very own.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Lucy, those look like great fun, but sadly, the seller does not deliver to the US and there is nothing comparable on Amazon available in the US. I did find some plastic "spring" toys, but I have concerns as to how sturdy those are.

Thomas, especially,has a powerful bite, and tends to chew and "mock kill" toys.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Our cat does not play. She never has. We have one of those cat towers for her? She never uses it. She does play with my hair, or one of my hair clips. (She likes to catch a lock of hair in her paw. Then, she begins to swallow it. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been awakened by our cat, choking on my hair and purring up a blue streak. It is long hair, and I have to pull it out of her throat.

Then she acts like it's my fault this happened.

Last week, I began using the middle level of the cat tower to rest my laptop on, so I can see out the window. Believing she would see it as a friendly gesture, I set Sarah onto the highest level of the tower. (She hates her cat tower.) I thought that maybe if I were using the tower, she would enjoy it, too. Shooting me that kind of cross-eyed look only cats ever really master, she leaped off the tower and went tearing down the hall.

There was this kind of muffled, sustained mewing.

Turned out she'd grabbed one of the toys on the top level of the tower and somehow gotten it stuck on her teeth.

Giving me one of those looks, she pushed it off just as I got there to save her and took off down the hallway.

Like I did this to her.

I am sitting at the cat tower right now, as I type.

Sarah is asleep on the bed. When she wakes up, she will leap onto my computer keys. I swear she accomplishes this in one incredibly accurate leap. Startling me every time, she goes skidding across the keys and, you guessed it, takes off running down the hall.

No one uses the cat tower but me.

It has a little block on a string, and a mouse with a feather on the end of it hanging from the block. This device, supposedly amusing to cats, hangs from the top level of the tower. I use it to cover the camera lens on my laptop so no one can peek at me while I am typing.

Ahem.

Cedar

.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Cedar, has it occurred to you that your cat is strange? I mean, even stranger than the run-of-the-mill cat?

I mean, Thomas is suffering from a deprived "childhood" and yes, he is a tad strange, but...your girl? Wow!
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Cedar, is your cat happy? If so, let her live her own life. I had several cats who didn't play but were perfectly happy with their lives. I also had a couple who were miserable and had to be trained to behave well. Eventually they too were happy. The best cat friend my dad EVER had did not play. He came to us after leaving a grad student and his abusive girlfriend. They moved away an left him. He was nearly feral, but bonded with my dad over several months. I was terrified when Wiz was born because he was so hateful at that time to all but my dad. By the time Wiz could crawl, they played tag together on the chairs under the dining table. I had zero worries by then because he was so protective and sweet to Wiz. He never played with a cat toy in his life that we saw. But he was happy and the head of the household.

Have you tried using a laser pointer to play with your cat? You may need to find a favored treat to help her learn to play, but it can be done.

FYI, those cat towers have been ignored or hated by many of our cats. Mostly they use our furniture. Of course few of our cats think they are not human.

ToK, Thomas sounds adorable. You can get organic catnip very cheap at many organic food stores. It is often with bulk spices or teas. It is often used as a tea for people with stomach issues. It was MAGIC for Tyler back when he had colic and then when he had acid reflux as a toddler.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Susie, Thomas is adorable, though right now he is in my lap trying to figure out how to get in the drawer where I've got the kitty teasers stashed.

He gets frustrated with my lap as at 17lbs and long and lanky, he doesn't quite fit all that well unless he heads up my chest, which I won't allow since if he gets in my face he promptly licks my glasses!

The theory seems to be that since he's not allowed on my laptop to get attention, if he licks my glasses to prevent me from SEEING the computer, I'll have to pet him.
 

nlj

Well-Known Member
Our cat loves playing football with the blue plastic bottle tops off water bottles. She's also quite a good mouser though. We live next to a river and she often brings back mice and voles and frogs that she's caught on the river bank so I think the 'playing' is about practising their hunting skills.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Lucy, the playing is nearly always about practicing their hunting skills. My kids like the rings off of milk jugs, soda pop bottle tops, and just about anything else their fuzzy little minds can turn into toys.

My guys don't go out. It isn't safe up here due to automobile traffic and larger predators (birds of prey, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, etc), plus Thomas was declawed at some point before he came home forever, so is defenceless)

Squeaky is a phenomenal mouser. Thomas has so far, with tonight, gotten four mice. His mouth is too big to do a proper killing bite to the base of the skull so stuns his mice with a mighty blow from a large paw and then bites their heads off. He then brings the decapitated corpses to show me before eating his prey.

I do have to say that unlike Squeaky, who can kill properly, Thomas doesn't toss his victims around for ten minutes before killing them.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Susie, in the winter I get 'Fantasia" brand catnip from Foster and Smith. They are located in the town in which I live, and have an outlet store. During the growing season, my BFFs in Milwaukee are kind enough to pick and dry what we refer to as "Atomic Catnip" from their back yard for my kidz.

They have been supplying my cats with this stuff for nearly 17 years. It is by far the most potent catnip I've ever seen.
 

Scent of Cedar *

Well-Known Member
Sarah is a superb hunter. She brings her trophies home, waits until she has our attention, and kills them as we holler "NO SARAH!" Then, she eats every part of them right in front of us.

She would bring them in the house, still alive, if she could.

If we don't see the capturing of her little victims? She considerately leaves a liver or hindquarters or, sometimes, the tiny little head immediately outside the door so we can see it when we get up in the morning. She is especially likely to do this when we have company.

I think all cats are this way to a certain extent. She is displaying her "trophy."

Love comes in many colors.

:O)

Cedar

P.S. Where we are now, she does not go outside. That is probably why she seems more tightly wound, here.

I love the story about licking your glasses. I just love it!

Sarah too was a stray, half-grown, half-starved, when we found her.

She is still standoffish about guests.

.
 

cubsgirl

Well-Known Member
My Polixenes (Polly for short) does not like catnip or any toys. We give them to her and she sniffs them with righteous indignation. She does however, like to paw my pill bottles off my desk and get between me and my keyboard. I call her "wrist pad kitty". Our other cat Elizabeth, is only 2 and she is much more into toys and catnip. It's pretty cute.

I'd love to see Thomas and his chicken. I wish my cats had a favorite toy.
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Thomas isn't quite as obsessed with his chicken now, but still gets upset if it isn't where he left it when he wants it. He woke me up around 5AM carrying on because he couldn't find his chicken.

I found it behind the bedroom door. He is starting to remind me of a toddler with a "blankie".
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
I've had dogs most of my life as well. I've been dogless for 4 years since I had to put Gryphon down due to a brain tumor. I didn't get into cats until my late husband and I moved in together. Always loved them, but couldn't have them because my dad was severely allergic to them.

I don't know that I agree that they love differently, perhaps because I've had dogs and cats that grew up together and species lines were rather blurred much of the time.

I know that Squeaky is very much all cat, but Thomas can be rather dog-like at times, which seems to be a Maine Coon characteristic. Mostly he's just extremely affectionate and demanding about it.
 
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