Zorro will play with a radish for hours... flicking it, chasing it...! It's especially good if he can steal one whilst I'm preparing them.
Cork drink coasters used as frisbees are good too. And chunks can be bitten out of them and used to decorate the floor...
Pliable wire [current favourite is that chopped from a defunct mobile phone charger] which is tied up into a knot that needs unravelling... This one is mainly used to distract him from chewing my computer wiring.
Meanwhile, the expensive Da Bird imported from UK gets totally ignored!
Tiggie is still looking for an opening to the outside where there is no snow!! I don't think he's been outside since yesterday morning! Good thing we have various litter trays inside.
Zorro is braving the snow now - desperation, I think! - but he's being really smart. He's made one set of tracks and keeps re-using them rather than having to sink into another pile of nasty white stuff. Is he eligible for Cat MENSA, do you think? lol
I love the way that they think it is going to be different out of another window! This morning, Tiggie tried the bathroom window (his favourite exit point), but turned straight around in disgust! then the front door, and the study window!
He is now in the best place on top of the cat tree, sleeping off his experience.
Here he is a couple of years ago on 'Pole position'
Indi has taken to the plastic tops off milk cartons/soft drink bottles!! but then he is bored at the moment (and don't the other cats know it!!), so there are peices of scrunched up paper and card all over the house, anything to get his energy levels down!!! He apparently doesn't like snow!!
And, as of this weekend, I can add emery boards to Zorro's toy stash! It must be something about the rough texture... reminds him of his mum's tongue, perhaps? lol
He's an old tart, actually. He pretends he's all big and butch and if anyone comes to the house, he won't let them anywhere near them. As soon as I go to bed he's upside down next to me, legs and crown jewels in the air, waiting for me to rub his tummy. Like I said, old tart. But I love him.
The cardboard boxes definitely - I'm in the throes of packing up the house so you can imagine the nonsense that goes on every time I go to put my 'valuables' in an empty box only to find one of two cats sitting in it. Plus any form of carrier bag, paper or plastic, they dont care they just want to get in.
Not toys as such, but my ginger tom loiters around the bathroom door waiting for me to get in the shower - as soon as I'm in, he lays down and sticks both his paws inside one of my slippers. Should I buy him his own pair...?
OMG, Julie... found this demo on youtube... that's a brilliant toy! A posh version of my 'bootlace mouse tail under the mat' but with no human intervention required!
All our countless play mice get completely ignored as well as the rest of the commercial toys! :-)
When our cats get into playing mood, they fish a chestnut out of the basket or a walnut and chase them around, until inevitably they end up under the couch or under the armchair and the game is over.
Forgot... haricots verts are up there with radishes as favourite toys!
And a 'puffy' blue envelope has to be carried around... and is often deposited on my bedside mat at some point during the night.
Fake 'mouse tails' - leather bootlaces tied together in a long string - pulled gently under a mat are good too, especially if the knots are good and fat and make lumps under the mat.
Our two, Tigger and Fudge, will chase rolled up till receipts for ages indoors, never in short supply. Almost anything else is eschewed except of course the odd mouse, bird, worm, beetle etc that they bring in. Tigger has a yen for bread, as soon as we bring a new loaf home he is trying to eat it and will spend ages trying to get into the bread bin!
