I got Felicity a new toy, and she’s having the best time with it, though it still doesn’t begin to rival her favourite toy ever.
Isn’t it adorable? It’s Japanese (as so many things are) and is a little ball wrapped in rayon yarn with crocheted ears and tail and bead eyes to form a mouse.
Of course, Felicity only loves it because she can hook her front claws into the yarns and pummel the heck out of it with her back legs.
Cats.
*Grins* I feel like that’s the same thing with my cats. Anything they can tear to shreds they love. The toys that are durable? Don’t get nearly enough attention.
That’s a cute mousie. My cats have a compressed catnip ball somewhere. When they find it, it’s The Best Toy Ever until it gets wedged somewhere again.
Sugar likes to grasp toys with her front paws and claw at them with the rear ones, too. It’s probably an instinct related to feline hunting behavior. I like to cheer her on when she does it, since it’s the sort of thing cats are supposed to do.
Walnut does that back paw clawing thing too! Felicity looks so adorable in all her photos; I brought Walnut over and made him look 🙂 He was confused.
I had a dog once that more or less ignored all the expensive toys I bought him. His favorite toy was an empty water bottle. I think he liked the noises it made when it skittered across the floor and when he bit it. And those things really do skitter across the floor quickly! I should try and see if my current dog likes those too. Her favorite thing is socks. Dogs.
Pummeling the heck out of it with their hind legs? Best thing ever.
Our first cat’s favourite toy was a ball made of aluminum foil: it rolled, it skidded, it was shiny and kind of rustly.
Paper balls are fine, too.
Such fun! Beautiful and clever Felicity!
This also led me back to the post on the wee water bottle caps, her favourites. Very good idea! Even washable, if you decide they’ve been living under the fridge just too long for comfort.
Maggie’s current favourites are screws, left over from a small home alteration. The make a satisfying clunk when batted, she can hook a claw under the tops to lift them up, and they go round is strange circles when patted gently. Much fun to knock them off her favourite perch and watch Mum pick them up again for her.
The bottle tops are great – so cheap! We don’t even buy bottled water, but I still get them at events and things. Every few months I dump the lot in super hot water and give them a scrub.
Aren’t you scared that Maggie could swallow a screw? Or cut her mouth with them?
She’s not really committed to mouthing the screw tops, just doing a hook, drop, and bat about. The plastic topped ones off the old electric plugs are the best ones – safer.
Seriously adorable. Her little toy is very cute also 🙂
We had one cat that never played – apart from with my Mum’s quilting ruler. You know, the big clear plastic ones that are about 4″ across. Run that over the carpet and he’d go nuts!
Two other fave toys for other cats were a stone cut into a small egg-shape and polished (it clunked and spun and rolled erratically but would disappear under the fridge) and the plastic rings you used to get off 2L milk bottles.