Thing On A String Cat Toys – Part One
Anyone who has ever lived with a kitten or a cat knows that anything on a string will entice even the laziest feline into action! It’s pretty universal and almost guaranteed. I cannot think of a cat I’ve lived with that could resist chasing a thing on a string regardless of whether that cat toy was store-bought or homemade.
Store-bought thing on a string cat toys are of the fishing poles variety and that which probably gave dog people the idea to make what’s known now as a flirt pole for dogs. Or at least that’s what I think about when I play with my dog with her favorite toy, the flirt pole. For my cats, I prefer the fleece type string at the end of a plastic wand toy because the fleece is soft and not likely to injure my cats even if hit in the eye and it is not heavy enough to knock over household objects to cause other injuries to my cats. The fact that these toys have been made with this sort of safety in mind is why it’s worth buying store-bought things on a string cat toys.
I find that many of my made from things at home cat toys are the toys that my cats find most fun. I admit that this perception may just be more about my ism about recycling but I think it has a lot to do with how spontaneously we can initiate a game with our pets. I often tie just any old string around my wrist and walk around the house while doing chores to multitask and play with my cats. I’ve used a belt, a tie, a bathrobe tie, a shoe lace and so on because these things were handy and the movement caught my kitten or cat’s attention right then and there. I’m writing this blogpost because I have concerns about such accessible things on a string being used as cat toys.
While things on a string provide great entertainment for cats and their people, I have a story to share about a string used for playing with our cats to help remind you to be careful with homemade cat toys. As I imagine many people do, we had a cotton string about two feet long and an one-eighth of an inch in diameter tied to the refrigerator door for our beautiful calico girl, Zoey, back in 1996. When we were in the kitchen, we’d play with her while cooking and cleaning up. My Mom was staying with us after having surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital so we weren’t as focused about ‘securing’ the string out of Zoey’s reach.
She joined me in the bathroom that morning (nothing all that unusual, especially for a young cat!) but sat in front of me trying to get that damn string out of her mouth – and throat and esophagus and stomach. All I coud see was about 8 inches of the string. I rushed and got her to the Boston Cat Hospital in Kenmore Square. The veterinarian on duty, Denny Albert, was furious that I had cut the string. I didn’t cut the string. A family member did while I was getting my car (parking issues in the city…). In hindsight, I’m not so sure cutting the string wasn’t the right thing to do anyway.
A cat’s tongue does not let such things come back up very easily – except hairballs and vomit. Anyway, we were really fortunate that the vet med team was able to monitor Zoey all day long administering subcutaneous fluids, laxatone and took two sets of radiographs to keep track of the string as it moved through the intestinal track. I picked her up just a few minutes before closing time and before I could get my night watch post set up in our living room, Zoey went into the litterbox and safely passed the thing on a string! I was never so happy to ‘handle’ cat poop in my life… I used tweezers to be sure the whole string came through. Zoey never had another loose thing on a string cat toy again. She lived a total of eighteen years and had plenty of other toys but always with supervision and mostly made for cats store bought cat toys.
In Part Two, I’ll share Zoey’s short list of some of the best such made for cat toys!