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Play with cats in shelters via the internet: http://www.ipetcompanion.com/#.ULZgrWlcyKg.facebook

I remotely entertained a cat in a Dallas shelter for approximately six seconds before it lost interest, which is typical for cats! But it was nifty to move the camera around and watch all the other cats.

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My turn came just as all the kittens apparently got taken off to meet prospective families! But it was still fun.

My second go-round occurred as a bunch of people walked into the room to talk about adoption, and it felt weird to look at them, so I moved the camera off to one side and attempted to entertain a cat over there, who was having none of it.

And then I looked at the Denver shelter, and ended up entertaining a couple of guys looking in through the glass walls, shaking first one toy and then another as they looked back and forth at the motion. None of the cats were the least bit interested, but those two guys stayed for a while!

....OMFG, it's just like what happens at our house anyway, the monkeys wind up playing with the toys. And then we're like "Wait, why are WE tossing a glittery red ball made of sparkling plastic around....?"

And then the cats get in the mood to play and ignore all the cat toys in favor of your shoes or some other unsuitable item!

Best Cat Toys Ever, ranked by Cats In Our House:

1 - empty brown paper grocery store bag
tied with
1 - empty box from Amazon monkey is trying to fold up and recycle
2 - empty shopping bag with chewable handles
3 - crumpled piece of paper
4 - solid catnip ball, but only rattling around on bedroom floor at 3 AM
5 - ball with jingle bell inside, but only in bedroom at 3 AM ("WHY did you get that?" "I didn't get it! You got it!" "Get it away from them!" "YOU try it....")
6 - red sparkly ball with bits that shed everywhere, left mysteriously smack on the middle of pillow ("Did you leave this here?" "No....?" //cue Godfather theme music)
7 - really fancy catnip-filled tiger tail, but only when waved around by monkey for 15 minutes, and then only for 5 minutes

But by far the most favourite toy EVER was a stuffed mouse called, because of its black-and-yellow stripes, BUMBLEMOUSIE. Bumblemousie was the most loved cat toy ever. It was chewed up, drooled on, kicked to pieces, dragged under beds, fought over, and not least, dropped in the water bowls so constantly it developed a permanent soggy texture and soupy smell. Bumblemousie lost its ears, its tail, its nose, and half its stuffing, and when it was finally retired we bought two IDENTICAL replacements to replace it immediately. No dice. They looked frantically for Bumblemousie, then sulked the rest of the afternoon. The replacement Bumblemice were permanently ignored.

Nefer has a Hamtaro plushie that's split its seam on one side of its head and lost a good deal of stuffing. Every so often I buy another toy of about the same size to see if she'll accept it. The size seems to be key--it's almost exactly the size of my fist, and anything larger or smaller doesn't provoke the same fierce love. Right now we've got a stuffed quail a little larger than Hamtaro that had tailfeathers until Sora pulled them all out, and it seems to be on track for a halfway decent replacement--we've had it for about two years now and we're starting to see it turn up in strange places around the house, signifying that Nefer's picked it up and taken it somewhere in the middle of the night.

Sora's favorite toy is a stick with two strips of Mylar on the end that used to have feathers (until he pulled them out), but as Nefer likes to eat both feathers and Mylar strips*, it lives in the closet and doesn't get taken out to play with near as much as Sora wants.

* And broom straws, so brooms are stored upside down.

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