My kitty did the craziest thing a couple of weeks ago. I got this toy from Target that has a bell and some feathers at the end of a plastic rod. My boyfriend threw it for her and to our surprise she picked it up by the end with the feathers and brought it back!! Now that is her favorite game to play with us!! :)

I have the stick with the feathers but no bell. My cat will carry it around by the end with the feathers too. Unfortunately, he hasn't learned to "fetch". ;)

TG

It used to have longer feathers and a bell but now there is no bell and all of the feathers are very short! She is so cute.

We have a tomcat with a thing for Mardi Gras beads he picks em up in his mouth and carries them around.(after he "kills" them)lol

I've given up spending real money on toys for my guys....they have no interest in them what so ever. But LOVE crumpled up paper and foil. Our latest game?

Rubberband Fetch. They will play for hours and won't let me stop. This has been going on for weeks and there must be 15 rubberbands around the place....But hey people or animals, it's good to be easily amused...I guess...

pre

You should also try the safety rings from milk jugs and pipe cleaners (wrap the pipe cleaner around your finger to make a spiral). My cats love both of these.

TG

We found 14 tennis balls near one of our boxes (and near a tennis court) last Friday. We brought them home in a plastic sack. They were sitting quietly on the floor until Silhouette put her head through the handle of the bag to sniff these balls. Somehow she spooked herself and ran...with tennis balls flying everywhere! Silly is getting into the lb thing as well! We had a big laugh over that one!

Trivia Daddy

One of our crazy kitties has a thing for mylar balloons with the little plastic weights attached. Whenever my dd receives one, the cat grabs the string & drags it around OR (the part that really cracks us up) she'll even brush by it and curve her fluffy tail around it to pull it along.

The only down side is that her favorite time to play is the middle of the night. One minute we're sleeping, the next we hear 'click (the plastic), crinkle (the mylar), click, crinkle' as the balloon goes up & down all over the house. It's especially noisy on the stairs. When I can't stand it any longer, the balloon gets locked in the closet.

stripedbass (& dd, Whiskers)

so you have a cat that is a dog and we have a dog that is a cat, if you pet hr long enough she PURRS! a little rumble in the back of her throat (happy rumble)

My cats always liked the plastic rings teat come on the tops of gallon milk jugs. They would hold it in their mouths and catch the other side in a claw so it went flipping across the room.

Woodsong

My kitty loved to play with the foam earplugs. Every day i would give her a new one thinking they were getting batted under the fridge. WRONG. She was eating them. After a day or 2 of not eating she threw up 5 of them. Needless to say thousands of $$ later she got surgery and there were 5 inside her stomach all hard from the gastric juices.
She does not get any rubber bands, any milk carton tops, anything foamy. No foam fun for her.
On the flip side she gets to hunt outside and play with real voles. She loves presenting them them to me and then lets them go in the house.
But that's another story

deniserows
and has been bitten by a vole

When I worked at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, I had a co-worker whose cat choked on the earplugs we all wore. The style we used on the jobsite was the foam-plug-on-a-string style, and kitty had the chase-anything-on-a-string gene.

Poor little cat was chomping on the plug, and got it caught in its throat. Of course, the foam expanded, and my friend just barely got the cat to the vet in time. Apparently, the plug made a sound liek a popping champagne cork when it came out.

I think with pets, like kids, you have to keep an eye on their toys to avoid hazardous play.

Lisascenic

My cat, Small Frye, began fetching my pony tail holders not to long ago. She wants to play fetch constantly! She sometimes places them in my hand while I am sleeping. Unfortunately, she also makes agressive surprise attempts to take them out of my hair.

You might be able to get her hooked on twist ties instead.

I personally would avoid twist ties since they have that thin metal wire inside... but have always been a fan of the milk rings, as has already been mentioned.

Another popular item at our house are pony beads. They make a fun noise on hard floors and can be carried conveniently by mouth or in a paw. Since they are hard plastic & small, they don't pose the same danger if swallowed (not that mine have ever shown an interest in eating them). But you can get 100 for $1 or so. That way when you move, someone else can have the pleasure of removing thousands from under the stove & fridge.

stripedbass

You beat me to it! My BIG house cat-Todd-loves milk rings! In fact, the only way we usually know one has missed the trash can is when he goes flying through the kitchen with it.
The other thing he "loves" are feather dusters-or anything with feathers-I guess it replaces the urge to bird hunt or something, but it became a real problem and all feathers had to be put up or he would seriously "have them"!
kitties are so funny aren't they?

My cat also seems to think she is a dog- she likes to chew on everything! Her favorite thing to chew on is Darren's ankles, followed by the couch corner, napkins, and whatever else she can find. Recently, she tried to chew on my hair, but that wasn't happening!

Desi

My mom and I were practicing our monkey fist knots (mom was practicing, I was learning just for the heck of it) and my cat Sammy LOVES to drag the string and knot all over the house. The knot gives her something to grab onto, even with her plastic tips on her claws. It's her favorite toy!

Also, sometimes I accidentally leave the pantry door open. One day, I heard some large clunks from the cabinet. I found soup cans all over the hallway floor. THen I look up to find Sammy climbing up the wood shelves towards the catnip container on the top shelf! It was SO cute, I just HAD to get a picture!!!!

Then, of course there's the brown craft paper that serves as padding inside of boxes that are sent to me.....

Music Woman

Check out pictures at:

www.mindizney.com/sammy.html

Music Woman

Those are so cute! What a darling cat.

Oh, I miss having a kitty!

Singing Wolf

anyone having puppies? Or know of anyone who has or is having them? I'm looking for something in a larger breed. ie: lab, golden, Shepherd... along those lines. I'd also prefer something mixed. A mistake litter perhaps.
Or if anyone is looking for a home (with children) for an unwanted dog.. maybe a yr or 2 old.
Anyone know of anything, let me know.
oh...I'm on the east cost...MA...
Thanks.
-CCL

Petfinder.org is a great resource to find the perfect new pet!

you know. I've been on petfinder and find lots of dog/puppies but they want you to adopt sight unseen. Most puppies are around the $450 range and you don't get to meet them first. I don't like the idea of not getting the idea of a personality first.
That's just my opinion of course.
-CCL

Do you have a local animal shelter? They generally have some great pets available for reasonable adoption fees. I got my kitty at a shelter in my area and he's wonderful. :)

Petfinder is just a place for various rescues and shelters to list the animals they have available, and each different rescue is going to have different policies, but I can't imagine that there are that many rescues that actually want you to just pick up a dog sight unseen and not take the time to meet it and make sure you click. But I absolutely agree with you that such a rescue would not be one I would want to adopt from. As for the price, $450 seems a little steep, but most rescues do charge a couple hundred dollars a) to cover their expenses, which often include fixing the dog and b) to make sure the people adopting from them realize what kind of financial commitment they're getting into in the first place. Unfortunately, free or cheap puppies often end up with people who will get tired of them once they're no longer cute and cuddly and/or who don't think it's worth spending money to take them to the vet or buy them good quality food, etc. (Not saying you're such a person, of course, but just pointing out the reasons for high adoption prices.)

If you know what kind of dog you're looking for, you might see if there's a rescue org for that breed. Many times, you'll find really good, sweet dogs who just didn't work out for their owners. If you google, many have national orgs that have state levels. They often have pics of the dogs, allow you to go to the foster home (and they'll come to yours), and do everything possible to make sure you get the right dog for you AND you get to help out a dog that needs rescuing.

I know this isn't your 'area', but GreyCrazy in SC does greyhound rescues and might know some rescue folks up that way. I've been around some of the dogs in question, and they have been FABULOUS. I really can't speak nicely enough.

Just a suggestion to consider.

JPMcD

You might try on FREECYCLE. it is a yahoo group and you can sign up for the area in which you live, work or travel. (I belong to about 4 in my area) No flames or flying fruit, please! But a few of the freecycles that are in my area do allow posts about pets (there are some that do not allow living things to be transfered through them, though!)

Good luck, I wish I was getting a dog!

Six Stars, NH

I was just at the Animal Rescue League in Brewster, CCL they had two 'puppies' (@ six- eight months old) that look like a mix of pointer.. very sweet & friendly, an older yellow lab (just guessing but I would say 3 or so) that was very friendly & low key, and a small collie (or large minature collie, tho the girth wasn't minature.. ) that was a snuggle bunny... I believe they will be up for adoption tomorrow...

Okay, it took me long enough, but a couple of months ago I had posted about my cat-proof baby gate. I finally uploaded the photos of it:
http://www.atlasquest.com/gallery/viewalbum.html?gAlbumId=297

It still is cat-proof, though I don't know how much longer. One of the kitties can do a standing jump up onto the kitchen counters, which are higher than this gate. Maybe she just doesn't know that, yet!

Cheers,
-AG