Cat chat thread the umpteenth - the Café is open all welcome

[TheLongRider]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_litter_tray/4114520-cat-chat-thread-we-ve-lost-count

I've just woken up feeling rather uncomfortable and unable to move freely.
Apologies for terrible photo (flash) but attached are the reasons I was feeling pinned down. The little buggers haven't even moved now I've got up for a pee. No idea how I'm going to get back into bed. I've told them to move over and pester Mrs Grumpy instead but they are ignoring me.

Have you woken refreshed @Grumpy and DH to Yes?

I expect the sofa was jolly comfortable.

Loving on mama

Morning All. Loving the pics. Tom slowly coming around to me. Had an unexpected visitor yesterday and he nearly lost his mind with the terror of another voice in the house. Do they eventually get over that? He was hiding behind a couch shaking.

Here he is looking out at the birds this morning.

Love the Booths bag in the background Queen!

I wonder what he will do if you ever have to go back to work?

I squeezed back into bed between the cats and did get back to sleep thanks.
More exciting is that Mrs Grumpy and I are just back from having our first Covid jabs today .

@YetAnotherSpartacus got to love Booths!
I imagine I will get a very warm welcome as every time I leave him for an hour at the minute he does happy feet when I come back
(When he's happy he does this side to side paw stamping thing)

Thanks for the reassurance.
I find it extremely funny how cats love things that are not intended for them more than any pricey toy that we can get them. Our kitten's favourites are:

• plastic bowl from the corner shop (£1 for 3 sizes)
• plastic springs (wish - £1 for 12)
• "rug" from ikea (£10) which was supposed ot be under the rolling chair but turned out to be more like a bed throw than an actual rug, so totally unfit for purpose.
• my old beanbag
• spiral cable organizer - I though cats were afraid of long, snake-like things... our's never read that memo. Loves cucumber too.
• and the all time favourite: crushed brown envelope (free, thanks to hmrc)

Any other household items that we have missed "giving" to the cat? :)

Drinking straws, Xmas baubles, shoe laces, sparkling wine corks.

Ollie loves
Boxes. Any box
Ribbon (fave thing EVER)
The telephone coil type hair bobbles
Pens
Cotton buds
My keys (especially if he can steal them out my handbag)
Tops off makeup bottles
Makeup brushes

Oh and yes to straws. A paw creeps over to steal them out my drink

Boxes large feathers, shoe laces, pens, wine corks, cotton buds, boxes, did anyone mention boxes?

:)
xmas baubles are fragile, don't they break it by accident? then cut their paws?

@QueenPaw what kind of ribbons? paper based, or textile ones?

@TheSunIsStillShining any form!

Can I add boxes? I wouldn't want you to miss the importance of boxes. Specially Amazon boxes with extra paper packaging.

And that little red dot. Oh boyyyyyy does Leroy love a little red dot.

@TheSunIsStillShining cat owners don’t have glass baubles in easily accessible places. You look longingly at them in John Lewis then buy the shatterproof ones 😩.

boxes: we just moved 2 days before we got her. We were full of boxes. She got de-sensitized... or again - forgot to read her manual.

baubles: we do have the shatterproof ones, but they still break and the thin plastic can cut you. In another rotation I might try them.

@QueenPaw now I'm confused: everywhere they say that things that can be swallowed are a safety concern. Ribbons could easily be swallowed.
We're new to this, so I'm guessing that we consider many things no-no that used cat owners don't bat en eyelid about : )

@TheSunIsStillShining mine is my first cat so yes a learning curve!
I hold the ribbon (get a really long length) and kind of wiggle it like a snake across the floor so he can't actually swallow it. Or dangle it. He likes nail files too, I have a giant one that I think was a joke as it's so big you can't use it so he has that

Mine is very.. weird and will never mouth anything anyway so I don't worry about him playing with pens as he just bats them across the room!

Dentalape/floss, lengths of thread and those plastic ties you used to get on bin bags are very dangerous but I’ve never had a cat try to eat ribbon.

I haven’t had a bauble break, even after he’d batted it down the stairs onto the tiles and raced down after it. It’s like a big ping pong ball.

Leroy's ribbons are about 2cm wide and about 50? 60? cm long. I wouldn't tie it to anything for free play, but we play chase round the house and dangle it so he can swat and catch it.

Thanks again for all the ideas :)
We have a weekly play rotation - same as we had with our kid. So next week it's time for ribbon.

Our kitten is true to it's breed in one aspect: so sociable that she can't stand not being involved in something. So if I cook my H will have her in his arms so she can watch and we can talk. Or I have to close the door as she will keep jumping on me until I pick her up.
Def time to set some boundaries.
We had our first "training" session yesterday with a chair and kitchen table. Promising first steps, but at this rate a year or two to go :) Probs will stick to the rattle some rocks so she's scared method.
Oh, and tried alu foil - she loved it! jumped on it up and down.

You can use balls of foil for play too
These are popular, strong catnip

My cats go nuts over the insoles out of DS's wellies. I've tried putting the wellies out of reach but they still get to them, get the insoles out and then fight them to the death.

Might be a bit young for Catnip. Kittens don't really have a response to it - and there's only a 50%(?) chance they'll turn into a junkie when they get older.

Leroy is a complete Niphead.

My cats go nuts over the insoles out of DS's wellies. I've tried putting the wellies out of reach but they still get to them, get the insoles out and then fight them to the death

I'm imagining vending machines for cats like those that allegedly exist in Japan with girls' worn underpants.