Need ideas for cat toys

"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo
or PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm
not driving over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So
I'm shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's
only 12 miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries
and seem to buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies
disappear... sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She
loved those crinkly mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo,
but I had to buy the big ones so they wouldn't get lost under or
behind furniture. I'm forever fishing "mousies" out from under
furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of
that "thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser
pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track
ball thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys,
except maybe those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look
into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly
sendentary so I don't run around the house with fishing poles
that dangle feathers or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie
aside how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in,
can you start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small
animals. And sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard
chasing you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else
that will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

The alligators are a very real danger. It is unlikely that they would
chase a cat across the yard, but they could easily grab one that came
too close to the water. They can be very quick.

Where my sister lives in Florida, no one lets their cats out that
expects them back. And you cannot leave a dog unattended in the yard
either.

Jill has mentioned that her home is right on a golf course, and it is
very common for alligators to take up residence in the water hazards.
Maybe not ones large enough to drag a grown man underwater. But large
enough to develop a taste for dogs and cats. Also, they don't stay
put. They can and will travel quite a distance, so what was safe last
week or last year could be a hazard now.

(Have lived where you can hear them roar at night)

Jo

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not driving
over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those crinkly
mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy the big
ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm forever
fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly sendentary
so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that dangle feathers
or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie aside
how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in, can you
start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small animals. And
sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard chasing
you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else that
will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

Tweed


There are signs all over the island that say "Do Not Feed the Alligators"
because people who first built houses here thought they were cute... until
their pets started disappearing. I've never personally been "chased" by an
alligator but that doesn't mean anything. There are poisonous snakes here,
too. Raccoons that are bigger than she is, large hawks and owls that hunt
for small prey such as cats. I don't think I'll take the chance with
letting Persia run around outside, thanks.

Jill

"Jofirey" wrote in message
news

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not
driving over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm
shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those
crinkly mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy
the big ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm
forever fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly
sendentary so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that
dangle feathers or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie
aside how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in, can
you start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small animals.
And sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard chasing
you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else that
will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

The alligators are a very real danger. It is unlikely that they would
chase a cat across the yard, but they could easily grab one that came too
close to the water. They can be very quick.

Where my sister lives in Florida, no one lets their cats out that expects
them back. And you cannot leave a dog unattended in the yard either.

Jill has mentioned that her home is right on a golf course, and it is very
common for alligators to take up residence in the water hazards. Maybe not
ones large enough to drag a grown man underwater. But large enough to
develop a taste for dogs and cats. Also, they don't stay put. They can
and will travel quite a distance, so what was safe last week or last year
could be a hazard now.

(Have lived where you can hear them roar at night)

Jo
Yep, the alligators love the water hazards on the golf course. The 11th
green is in my back yard. There isn't a water hazard there, just a couple
of sand traps. But this is an island, and not a very big one. It's
surrounded by water. There are signs all over the place warning about
alligators. Lots of people thought they were "cute" until their pets
started going missing.

Years ago I was engaged to a guy from Louisiana. He went hunting one year
and had to kill an alligator that got between him and his truck. It *did*
chase him and they move very fast when they want to. He reported the kill
to the wildlife comissioner (they are a protected species, even if they try
to kill you first). The ones animal control catches here are relocated away
from people, and away from pets.

Jill

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not driving
over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those crinkly
mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy the big
ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm forever
fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly sendentary
so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that dangle feathers
or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie aside
how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in, can you
start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small animals. And
sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard chasing
you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else that
will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

Tweed

Seriously, Tweed, alligators are definitely a danger - they have eaten
uncounted dogs and cats in Florida and regularly have to be rounded up and
destroyed so they won't pose a danger to children and even adults. They can
be very quick moving (or else they wouldn't survive if they could never
catch prey).

Hugs,

CatNipped

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not
driving over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm
shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those
crinkly mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy
the big ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm
forever fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly
sendentary so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that
dangle feathers or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie
aside how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in, can
you start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small animals.
And sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard chasing
you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else that
will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

Tweed


There are signs all over the island that say "Do Not Feed the Alligators"
because people who first built houses here thought they were cute... until
their pets started disappearing. I've never personally been "chased" by
an alligator but that doesn't mean anything. There are poisonous snakes
here, too. Raccoons that are bigger than she is, large hawks and owls
that hunt for small prey such as cats. I don't think I'll take the chance
with letting Persia run around outside, thanks.

Jill

Agreed. When I used to take Bandit out in the backyard for supervised
visits to the "out", I had to keep one eye on the sky for hawks. A hawk
will swoop down unexpectedly, even in the presence of a human, to snatch up
a small animal for lunch (I'll never forget that "America's Funniest Home
Video" that showed a mouse being grabbed and carried away in front of a boy
and his father - it wasn't very funny to *me*!).

To be fair, it's hard for people in the UK to understand how dangerous it is
in the US for pets to be outside. They don't have the types of predators
that we have here. I think I once started a thread about local predators
and the list of them was in the thirties or forties by the time people
finished listing the ones in their areas of the country.

Hugs,

CatNipped

jmcquown wrote:

I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not driving over
100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12 miles
away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to buy her
mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear... sometimes they
reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those crinkly mylar balls I used
to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy the big ones so they wouldn't get
lost under or behind furniture. I'm forever fishing "mousies" out from
under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball thing,
maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe those doorknob
dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly sendentary so I
don't run around the house with fishing poles that dangle feathers or things
like that.

Ever try the "poke the stick in and out from under the rug" game with
her? I have never, ever met a cat that wasn't immediately riveted by that.

All you need is a long, smooth stick (I save the rods from old plastic,
horizontal mini-blinds, the thing you twist to make the blinds face up
or down) and a throw rug or blanket, or some item you can run the stick
underneath. The important action is that the cat should see the tip of
the stick (not the end you're holding, but the other end) poking in and
out from under the edge of the rug that's closest to them. Then you
should pull the stick toward you slowly, so that it disappears under
the rug. Drives cats crazy - maybe it looks like a mouse's tail as it
runs for cover? I've made friends with countless stranger cats (from
pet-sitting jobs, visiting friends and meeting their cat for the first
time, etc), just by playing this game with them.

Oh, and it takes very little exertion on your part. (I hear ya on
that one!)

--
Joyce ^..^

(To email me, remove the X's from my user name.)

wrote in news:49a5c48b$0$1630
:

All you need is a long, smooth stick (I save the rods from old plastic,
horizontal mini-blinds, the thing you twist to make the blinds face up
or down) and a throw rug or blanket, or some item you can run the stick
underneath.

Wrapping paper or butcher's paper can be even more effective, due to noise
and tactile response. You might not even need the rod very long. One of our
cats goes nuts playing with a tent of paper taken off some just-received
package. Just be prepared for some cleanup, after the paper has been
properly "killed".

"jmcquown" wrote in
:

I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not
driving over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm
shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those
crinkly mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy
the big ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm
forever fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly
sendentary so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that
dangle feathers or things like that.

Jill



The brothers have a trackball and they love it. They each play with it
every day for at least a few minutes and the ball never goes under the
furniture.

ScratchMonkey wrote in
:

"jmcquown" wrote in news:70lkdiFblhk4U1
@mid.individual.net:

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of
that "thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

How does she handle flashing balls?

My most successful toy ever was the Bergan Star Chaser. They make a
version with a regular (non-flashing non-electric) ball called the
Turbo Chaser.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=3200132

http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...ductId=2753802

Both have a scratch pad in the center that gets a lot of use. Far more
than any other scratcher toy I've deployed. Replacement cardboard pads
are available, as is a replacement ball for when the battery for the
light inside dies.

If you're a light sleeper, don't put this near your bedroom. It will
get used all night long.



The noise does not bother me; it's the sound of my cats having a great
time and it gives me a smile. I get up at 3:50 AM and they play with the
trackball (Turbo chaser) about 3:00 AM. I know they are ok when I hear
the ball whirring around. They play again after dinner (right about
now).

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"jmcquown" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to keep Persia active. Keep in mind there is no PetCo or
PetSmart store within 50 miles of here. I love her but I'm not driving
over 100 miles (to/from) just to buy cat toys. So I'm shopping online.

She loves the little toy mousies I get from Walgreen's (that's only 12
miles away and I go there when I also shop for groceries and seem to
buy her mousies all the time). But those mousies disappear...
sometimes they reappear, sometimes they don't. She loved those crinkly
mylar balls I used to get for her at PetCo, but I had to buy the big
ones so they wouldn't get lost under or behind furniture. I'm forever
fishing "mousies" out from under furniture.

She doesn't like anything battery operated. She was terrified of that
"thing in a bag". She quickly got bored with the laser pointer.

I need something more to give Persia more exercise. That track ball
thing, maybe? There's no place to hang dangling toys, except maybe
those doorknob dangling things... hmmm. I'll look into those.

Any other suggestions for toys to entertain her? I'm fairly sendentary
so I don't run around the house with fishing poles that dangle feathers
or things like that.

How dangerous would it be where you live now to let her out? Lie aside
how much it freaks you because it's normal to keep cats in, can you
start to let her out?

Tweed


Uh, no. There are alligators here. They tend to eat small animals. And
sometimes people.


That's scary. Have there ever been any alligators in your yard chasing
you or Persia? I suspect not.
Do you have mountain lions there that will eat her or anything else that
will eat a cat?
If not give her a chance to experience the out.

Tweed


In Florida near golf course or any source of water with in 5 miles
alligators are a extreme Real danger. A gator will travel for miles to find
a water source and often end up in peoples pools and in garages. They
actually sell something called a gator fence for gators can actually push
themselves over fences. the gator fence has barbs that snag when they try
to push them selves up and over. Many people that have dogs near water
source do double fences for a determined gator will get in. By my old
house the next door neighborhood had a gator in the pool one dry summer and
a Panther sitting on the porch one winter. I think I told everyone about
the Panther that was perched up on our bay window looking down at the
furballs who all where lined up growling and making a fit separated by a
thin pane of glass. Now at my current place. I see and hear bobcats all
the time. Occasionally see a panther, behind me is a bird reserve has a
family of hawk and a set of bald eagles that finally returned after the 2004
hurricanes. My heart cat Spirit may he RIP was attacked by a hawk when he
was a kitten.

Florida has bobcats, bears, rattle snakes; multiple types, coral snakes,
cotton mouth snakes, Florida panthers aka mountain lions aka cougars,
eagles, hawks, ospreys, gators, salt water crocodiles, bull sharks and a new
threat of giant snakes such as boa constrictors. So in Florida outside pets
are screwed