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We can blame cat prey habits for the accumulated items which may not have started out as toys, but do end up that way.
Cats bat their toys across the room, play hockey with them, and find partially hidden toys a challenge they enjoy. This all simulates actual prey behavior.
So when a toy gets tossed under or played into nooks and crannies of the house, our cats do make a good effort to get them out again; that’s part of the play. But often their effort just drives the toy further out of reach. Time for a new toy.
On one level, cats know their toys are toys. They like to tear them apart, but they don’t try to actually eat them. But during play they can lose sight of their essentially inert qualities, just as we get into video games. If a toy disappears under the couch, they can assume the toy might be sneaking out again. Or, at least, it’s fun to pretend so.
We can get clues to where missing toys might have wound up by seeing if our cats are studying or hanging out in certain places. This is where a yardstick becomes an essential cat care tool, though mop handles or tennis rackets are also helpful.
Don’t let this opportunity for interaction pass us by. Make a production over fetching the Toy Tool from its place, and peering under the furniture. Get our cat excited over the possibilities before we even start fishing stuff out.
Be prepared to find mousies and sponge balls, hair accessories, bottle caps, the crumpled receipt we tossed them and forgot about, and that earring we’ve been going crazy searching for. Cats adore the hidden treasures that come to light this way.
We can clean most of this stuff off and set them loose again. (But put that earring away safely.) A toy that hasn’t been seen for a while is just as good as a new toy. This is recycling at its simplest.
But now matter how we search, we will never find all the toys.
Maybe, one day, science will find the answer.
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There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.
Monkey, who loves playing fetch with the fur covered mice will put them in water bowls and then his food bowl….much like breading them… when they are soft enough he will pull the fur off and eat it… then he starts work on the plastic part…we now supervise the mice pretty carefully. Luckily he has found that a coiled up pipe cleaner is fetch worthy and its a toy he doesnt eat….but it still goes in the water and food bowls
Ordell got the nickname of “Brewmaster” because of the same fondness for soaking toys in his water bowl. His favorite was pig ears; because they would bloat up and assume new and interesting shapes.
Must be an Alpha thing!
Our cat Jasper loves batting things until they are unreachable by man or beast. Last time he knocked a paper ball under the bureau, I laid down on the floor to retrieve it for him. I ended up retrieving TEN paper balls, a fabric ball, a mousie (thankfully stuffed) and a walnut. Yep, a walnut. Jasper looked most put out that I’d found it!
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