Tuesday, October 21, 2008

these are a few of kitty's favorite things

I've been feeling somewhat guilty lately for quasi-neglecting my cat. She's certainly fine and gets enough food and water, but has been getting the short end of the attention stick lately. When I don't spend as much time playing with her she gets a little ornery and then I find myself in a pretty heavy spray bottle rotation. So I tried getting her some new toys so she could focus on them and maybe please leave the houseplants alone (forchrissakesstopdumpingovermyorchids!)

These are the toys that we have bought her:
1. Thing in a Bag: little vibrating motor in a paper bag
2. Boingy birdy: feathery bird sits on spring and bounces around when batted at, also plays chirps when struck hard enough.
3. Cat nip
4. Ping pong balls
5. Cat nip filled chewy toys
6. Cat nip filled crinkly toys
7. Mouse that spins around in a circular track

These are the things that my cat actually likes to play with:
1. Jade plant leaves
2. Vertical blinds: she only likes to play with them when I'm sleeping though
3. Every single hair tie on the face of the damn earth
4. Shower curtain
5. Her food: omgteenytinyhockeypucks!!!!!! Also, since there are probably 85 kibbles under the fridge, stove and dishwasher, possibly the source of my troubles
6. My legs
7. My backpack: mostly for naps
8. Twist ties
9. Cardboard boxes
10. Anything in the forbidden closet
11. Occasionally ping pong balls, although that got old really fast
12. Shoelaces
13. Pens: but only when I am actually writing something
14. Measuring tape: sometimes used to get the ping pong balls out from under the stove
15. DVDs that are left out of their cases
16. My contacts case

I would be more than happy to supply her with plenty of the things that she likes to play with (except the house plants and kibble) but even it doesn't seem to hold her attention for very long. There's really only so much more abuse my plants can take, poor things (uh, oddly heightened mothering instinct? perhaps). In general my cat is great: she doesn't tear up the furniture, she doesn't bite or scratch, she always goes in the box (and even tries to sweep up her own litter if it gets out of the box), she lets me groom her so there's less hair around, and with the exception of the jade, she generally only damages the plants if they are in between her and somewhere she wants to be (like the inch-and-a-half between the plant and the wall). I just want her to keep being great despite the fact that Mommy is not playing Catch the String much anymore. Any ideas?

2 comments:

(In)Sanity Gal said...

I'm sorry I don't have any brilliant ideas - i could never make my cats play with the things i wanted them to either. i even tried growing cat grass for a while in the hopes that they would enjoy it and leave the plants alone. no such luck. they just enjoyed it and then moved on to the plants. and why do they love twist ties so much??

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