Favorite Household Toys

Your cat doesn't always need fancy store-bought toys.  A lot of times, simple household objects work just fine and sometimes are even preferred over "real" toys!  Carbon loves bottle caps, for example.  After we adopted him and Tabby as kittens, my husband couldn't figure out where the bottle caps he was saving on the counter (ones that had prize codes for free pop) were going.  They were disappearing, but there was no trace of them at all!  Then, one day, we caught baby kitten Carbon, six weeks old at the time, on top of the kitchen counter with a green cap in his mouth!  He looked at us, then hopped down with the cap, set it on the floor, and started batting it all around the kitchen happily.  Of course, we let him keep it!

Rori just brought me five of her "babies" that she dug out of the bathroom garbage can, chirping at me and at them.  Her choice for "babies" are q-tips!  She carries them around, decorates the house with them, then bites one of the ends off and swallows it.  Not the best idea, so we pick them up when we can, and usually put used ones in the fireplace rather than in the garbage so she can't get to them in the first place.

Tabby's choice is the cardboard tube left over from a toilet paper roll.  Once she sees one of those, she asks you to throw it for her, then goes absolutely nuts batting it all around the whole house.  She pounces on it, chases it up and down the hallway, carries it into a room then bats it out to the hallway again, and growls at it in a mock battle.

What are your cat's favorite household "toys"?

13 ways to love your litter bin

I incorporated the Thursday thirteen theme into a post for the 30 hubs in 30 days challenge, which ends today. I did a parody of Paul Simon's 50 ways to leave your lover. It's 13 ways to love your litter bin, about how to reuse those plastic bins that the litter comes in. If you have any other ideas for them, you can tell me in the comments.

Using the 3 R's for cat products

Happy Earth Day! One of the easiest ways to save on cat products is to use the 3 r's: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reduce:

• Does your cat have toys he isn't playing with? Put them away in a drawer for a few months, then take them out again. They'll seem like new, or like old friends he hasn't seen in a while.
• If your cat reacts to catnip, buy some made from the leaves and treat her toys with it.

Reuse:

• Look for items on Craig's List. Often in the pet section, there will be posts selling carriers, leftover doses of flea medication, cat trees, and other products. Ask questions about anything you buy to make sure the seller is honest. Pay with cash, and meet in a well-known place like a fast food restaurant or go with a friend. Sanitize any used products so your cat doesn't get sick, and rinse well if you used bleach.
• Ask for higher-end items on Freecycle. Who knows, maybe someone in your area got a new crate and wants to give away their old one, or their cat doesn't like the water fountain, or they have a stroller they haven't ever used. Maybe they moved and didn't take their pet along, or their cat died and they're not getting another one, so they have bowls and toys. It never hurts to post and see. It is expected that you offer an item first, then request, but what you offer doesn't have to be the same category or the same value. Again, sanitize and rinse the product you receive.

Recycle:

• Do you have something your cat has never used? Post it on Craig's List or Freecycle. On Craig's List, you can trade items. On Freecycle, everything is given away with no strings attached.
• If you know other cat people in your area, organize a used toy trade. Everyone brings one or two (or more) toys that their cat is tired of, and goes home with new ones. Again, sanitize and rinse any used toys.

If you would like to reduce your cat's carbon footprint even more, I found this post with other tips.