Sheesh. There's a lot of junk out there in the pet stores when it comes to cat toys. They'll put a little bell on a bowling ball and stuff the holes with catnip and then tell you it's the greatest thing since string. None of it is cheap. I've ended up throwing a lot of it away. The toys my cat likes best are the ones I make.

Toy basics - String and boxes, cat toy staples. My cat loves string when it gets flicked around and she loves boxes that she can hide in, lurk in and explore in them. I cut holes in the boxes so she can peek out and bat at strings I tease her with. She also likes to smack the dog from within her box fort and quite a few boxes have been torn to shreds by the dog trying to get at the defending cat. (My dog is one of the huge, but gentle types.) Destructibility is definitely a plus. Cats and dogs enjoy destroying things and making a mess. So did I when I was a kid. This is a feature lacking in most pet toys. Most are designed to appeal to a shopper. Quite a few are destructible, but unintentionally so. My dog for instance can tear apart a so called sturdy toy in half an hour and 7 bucks goes down the drain.

Not all boxes are the same. My cat cherishes each box in her collection. First off, a new box is always interesting. She'll try it on and she seems to know it's for her. It might be great fun for awhile and then it'll get old. I don't throw them out. (nice if you have the room) I get out a different toy and just like with humans, if it's not around all the time, it'll seem fresh again.

I've purchased snapple in cardboard containers. They were the right size for her when she was a kitten. I also have a large box that I call the garage door box. It's from a shredder and it's different because the lid is hinged on one side only. The cat loves this unique box because when laid on it's side, the lid is almost closed, but she can push her way in. It closes up on her once she's hidden. Strings, toys and feet passing too close to the trap door are hit with a lightning attack as she bursts out and then retreats again. (She hasn't complained of any headaches. I often wonder why.)

I also have a 18 by 18 inch air cleaner box that is a favorite. Right now it's filled with bill shreddings. Cats love the rustly noise paper makes, so the shreddings are fun to sit in, jump in and so forth. I think she also likes the way they cushion her landings. Just make sure they don't start eating the shreddings.

I have a huge selection of homemade string toys. I'm using a cotton tomato twine about an eighth of an inch in diameter. It's very sturdy, but it unravels way too easy. I usually knot the end to prevent it totally unraveling. The other end I tie to a stick. Just a string and a stick when swished around is great fun for the cat. Mine likes to catch it and gnaw on it which gets it really wet and gooey. It loses it's swishy, floaty characteristics when the end 6 inches are all soaked with cat spit, but fortunately, I have lots more strings and sticks. NEVER leave the cat with the string or within reach of the string. She might eat it and from one end to the other and find she can't walk away. I think everyone knows by now that kittens and yard are cute but a bad combination. Lots of cats have died as the result of choking on strings and twine so always supervise your cat when it has string. Sturdy string is good because it's not easily gnawed off and swallowed. If it gets frayed, if a chunk looks like it's going to break off, replace it.

The string and stick toys are varied by what I put on the end. Those little protective plastic things they put on glass snapples make a very appealing sound for cats when dragged across the floor. I tape them on the end of the string. On some walks in the woods I came across some pretty impressive feathers. Once again, the cat enjoyed those taped to strings and swished around. She really seemed to like biting the feather and it took an incredible amount of punishment in that way. I have a commercial toy with multicolored aluminum foil on the end of the string. Sort of a tassle. It also had a bell which I removed. It was much too heavy and sort of hazard to the teeth hidden among the tassels. I don't know what they're thinking with the bells. I've never had a cat who liked bells. Cats also like paper, balled up and attached to the end of string.

An important feature of this kind of toy is the human playing with the cat. I'm pretty sure they like to interact with their human when playing. They will play alone foe awhile, but the more long lasting fun comes with human interaction or maybe other cat, other dog interaction. It can be pretty boring playing with a cat sometimes because a big part of cat play is hiding and lurking out of sight. You may be standing there all alone swishing a string and totally bored, but your cat is somewhere, listening to every move you make and getting ready to pounce. To make them pounce vary the noise (stop and start it for varying intervals) and move the source of the noise. Often a string swished in front of a cat and then moved around a corner and out of sight will bring on an instant attack.

A toy I sort of invented has a small remote control car I bought at Radio shack. I think it was about 15 dollars. It scares hell out of the dog and the cat, but they also are very curious about it. No doubt they think some sort of witchcraft is involved. To make it fun I put it into a paper bag and roll up the end and then I move it forward and backward inside the bag. Since they can't see it, they feel brave enough to approach the bag until I move an inch and it crackles at which time the dog might stomp it or something. The cat tends to sit there with a wide eyed stare. I've also used it to drag a string with her favorite piece of paper on it or something.

One last toy I'd like to mention is made almost entirely from paper. Roll up several pieces of paper in a series. Newspaper is good. Take some scissors and cut slots into the top and then pull the paper out from the center so the paper kind of telescopes out. It should look kind of like a Christmas tree. With this you can poke your cat and shake the tree near the cat and the cat can tear it to pieces and make a huge mess. Lots of fun.

This article is Copyright © Po, and printed with permission of the author.