Fling-a-string

Excuse the low photo quality. I had to snap this one quickly with the crackberry. INKY is demonstrating exactly how he destroyed his new toy. My friend Bill received the fling-a-string toy for Xmas and it drove his cats bonkers (in a BAD way). You hang it over the doorknob and a battery powered motor causes this elastic pulley to rotate in circles. Not pictured is a piece of string which comes around every second or so. If you click here you can see a pic of the whole toy and watch a video of some cats playing with it. Well, Bills cats were so upset with the toy. It only frustrated them and made them cry for hours after turning it off. He lent it to me to see what my kitties would do. Well, JP played with it for over an hour. He looked like he was on acid. By the end of each play session he was on his back staring up at it in awe (look at the colours, man!). But some of the REAL DANGER is that unlike the dumb cats in the video, my cats (especially JP) can catch the string no problem which stops the rotating of the elastic so that the string can be chewed off and ingested. I had to carefully supervise each play session to be sure the string wasn't getting eaten! I might as well have just been playing an interacticve game with the cat in the first place. That would have been healthier for their stomaches and minds! So, when I returned home from the Florida Flute Convention (no, I never went to BAND CAMP), I found the string exposed (the toy must always be turned off with the string positioned in the back where kitties cannot get to it - even though they are going to keep crying when you turn it off either way). My husband claims I left the string on the front side before I left for Orlando. I don't think so. Not my MO. So, while cleaning the litterbox the other day, I found some colourful string stuck in a poop (kind of graphic...sorry, but that's life with the cats). Then I noticed last night that INKY is able to pull the elastic pully down so that he can get to the string. I was going to take the fling-a-string toy away last night but I didn't want to hear the crying. Figured I'd wait until the kitties fell asleep then sneak the toy away. Well, I awoke this morning to find a little stub of string hanging off the front of the toy! Inky had done it again! He ate more of the string. I quickly gave him and Spike (JP wont eat it and the girls dont play with the toy) some Petromalt to help them digest the string. This toy is evil! It messes with their little minds and even their stomaches. I took it away and offered to buy Bill a new one - even though I don't think any cat should have one. Bill says its a toy for lazy cat owners. I say irresponsible cat owners.