Favorite Cat Toys

 Since it's the day before Christmas Eve, I thought I'd talk about cat toys. My cats are spoiled, of course. They get new toys and treats, wrapped under the tree. I buy presents for my friend Donna's cats too. She has four of them. 

I like to buy Squeezables especially.  They go ga-ga for that stuff and they know what the tubes look like, so they get really excited when you bring them out.  Her Dr. Fine ( That's him in the photo. More on him in some other blog.) has a love of shrimp like no other so I make sure I get shrimp flavored ones. My cats prefer tuna and chicken. 

My cats have preferences for what kind of toys they like too. They don't seem to care for toy mice or jingle balls. 

My new boy Amir likes anything he can grab and kick like crazy, either the long cat nip filled strips or the big mouse that's wrapped in rope. 

When Grendel first came to us, he liked the round little mouse wrapped in rope. I remember he was recovering from a broken leg when I gave it to him. I walked in on him biting and wrestling with it, and he stopped and pretended he wasn't just playing with it. Nowadays he prefers catnip toys and a green ball that dispenses cat treats when he rolls it around. That boy bores easily, but he loves his treats.

Sully arrived at our house with a little orange bear, but he also loved a round disk with a ball in it that he liked to make spin. 

Freya has a strong preference for hard cat nip eggs. She loves them so much, she lies with them tucked close to her chest when she's not using them. But her FAVORITE toy above all others..?

You know when you open a jug of milk and you have to peel away that ring of yellow or pink plastic in order to break the seal? One fell to the floor one day, and she pounced on it. She bat that thing around for twenty minutes. So I started dropping them for her, just because it's fun to see how excited she gets. I hope I find them all someday...

The one toy I found that excites all cats is a cheap doo-hickey I got from London Drugs. It's a round fabric circle, yellow. A wand rotates beneath it, changing direction, stopping and starting. I think it was less than twenty dollars, which is good, because it didn't take long to jam up. 

Good thing it's a simple design, and I was able to take it apart. Dan and I seem to shed more than the cats, and I found a nest worthy amount of hair wrapped around the base. A few quick snips and a few replaced screws and it was back in working conditions. Still, they don't last long, and I bought three of them before I got tired of replacing and fixing them. They wear out faster than I'd like.

This year, I had to simplify. I didn't have the time or the money to go crazy. They are definitely getting more Squeezables, and some soft cats treats, chicken of course. I grabbed a couple of felt balls with bells on them, filled with cat nip. There's a couple of purple butterflies made of some kind of stiff netting. I really need to get them a new scratching post too. Grendel and Amir have been taking turns mangling the couch. 

What about you? Do you do Christmas with your cats? 

This will be my last cat post for the year. I have to figure out a new format for my blog, as Facebook continues to block me. 

I haven't decided what to blog about next, but I have a few started. There's one about Freya's 'Swat', a story about my grandpa's cat, and I would also like to formally introduce Amir. I hope you join me. I'll end this blog with a favorite photo of Spartacus Jones 'helping me' wrap presents. He curled the ribbons for me.