Let's get right to it.
You have only two more weeks to prepare for Diesel Day - an annual nationwide celebration of my adoption. Diesel Day is an opportunity to recognize the cats you love and do something special for the many homeless animals who depend on the warmth and safety of animal shelters in your community and mine.
Me and Alex have been working up a multi-part, but in no way exhaustive, review of cat toys to help you find that perfect Diesel Day gift for the furry one you love, or else a box of fine toys for your neighborhood shelter (check with them first to see if they have preferences on this front - kibble or money might be more useful). Please note that these toy ideas will also suit your furry feline on any day and for any occasion (like, just because you love them, or to make up for not getting up every two hours to open a can of stinky goodness). I understand this also works for humans, which is why I sometimes leave golden nuggets on the finest carpet in the house - but that's another blog.
First, some simplified cat-toy theory:
There are two broad categories humans can use to make sense of cat toy preferences: action toys and lickitty-sniff toys. Typical action toys - our subject today - include balls of any type, long ropey or dangly things, and compact scooty things.
Balls are very fun, should be available in a wide variety of sizes, levels of bouciness, and softness, and do not need to be made just for cats (though they have to be safe to lick, chew, puncture, or sit on without falling apart or poisoning us).
I am very fond of my NCAA baseball, my tennis ball, and there's nothing quite like a little golf ball hockey on a hardwood floor at 3 in the morning to give your humans that special edge. The ball in the upper left is #15 my quintessential bathtub ball. My other favorite ball is the scushy leather ball third from the bottom. It is soft and made of fake leather, but very sturdy and lightweight, making it excellent for paw hockey.
The only ropey things allowed in our house for cats are either boating line (Alex prefers line at 1/4 and 3/8 inch gauge), or climbing rope (very nice at 3/16, witness the blue line below). The thinner lines, once capped (again, see the blue line below), also make fines leashes for a jessed Red-Tailed Hawk! Alex loves leather cord at about 1/4 inch width, but I love it so much that I have been known to eat it. This is also why twine, nylon string, ribbon, leather, and rubberbands are only kept in drawers in our house.
The long black thing below, is a coach or driving whip - it helps when your people are engaged in multiple odd professions. While a whip should only be employed by a responsible human intent on entertaining a cat, this tool-toy can drive a feline to distraction in no time flat. We favor a sturdy, hand-made leather coach whip with braided horsetail ends. This keeps a lot of cool horsey folks employed (good horsey people do not beat their horses with whips). But you can use a willow branch or a cane with a securely attached leather strap.... To be clear for all those probing eyes and ears online, we are not endorsing torture, only good clean, family fun, nothing kinky, please, oh please!
The last grouping falls less neatly into the action category: compact scooty things.
For some cats, quality fur or leather falls into the lickitty-sniff category. We respect that, but for us, the fine brand toy Rosie Rat is an action toy. We don't want to lick Rosie, but we understand that some cats may be enriched by this activity. Rosie is top center in the above photo. The two furry rat fellows to her right are Roger and Roberto - our names. The furry behemoth below the Rosies is a toy we love to hate. It's very special fur wrapped around a crappy plastic thing that we can't recycle, but we can't help ourselves...while not our favorite toy, it fills a deep, dark, drooling, crazed void. And it was a gift to us from our Wisconsin vet, Dr. Mara. Leather mice, wool mice - especially boiled wool, and canvas mice (or other shapes) can all be very appealing scooty toys. We want them to be organic, super sturdy (of course we bite and bunny-kick them!) and not dyed with something that comes off on our tongues.
Wine corks!!!!! We love wine corks. At times there have been dozens laying around, all well played with. We prefer a good French Bordeaux, an Italian Barolo, a California Zinfandel, even a Tunisian Pinot.
Thread spools (no thread!), wood doo-dahs that roll and trip people in the dark, single piece clothing pins - all good clean fun.
And, we cannot move on without extolling the virtue of the foil ball. We do not do tinsel sparkle balls - remember I like to eat things - but we do love a well formed foil ball. Preferably made of red foil from dark Dove chocolates. One of the forgiving things about foil balls? When your people step on them, it won't hurt their foot and make them scream, and, even flat, the foil "ball" is awesome. To wit:
Next time: Lickitty-Sniff Doohickeys (LSD)
