What Makes a Good Cat Toy?

What makes a good toy for a cat? I think it would have to possess a few traits, such as:

Lightweight, easy to carry and tote around
Makes some kind of noise that captures attention
Has a good smell
Made of a squishy or bendable substance
Preferably has some kind of moving part (if alive, that outranks everything) (=

Well, when I came home from work on Monday, Pixie had found a new toy that met most of the characteristics listed above.

Her new toy was a bag of marshmallows. This is what I saw when I looked in the guest bedroom for her. She had been sleeping on her quilt on the bed with the bag of marshmallows snuggled in the quilt. I should have known this would happen when I brought the marshmallows home to begin with. I had put them on the kitchen counter and when I came into the kitchen I found her on the counter sitting on the full bag. She was not doing anything other than sitting there but she was sitting completely on the bag.

So now I find the bag with her on her bed. I can just imagine the fun she must have had. And to think, she took this bag from the kitchen counter, through the house and up on the bed where she had been sleeping. She was probably exhausted from such an adventure. Sometimes I wish I had a hidden camera set up to see what our cats actually do when we are not there.

This picture actually shows the little punctures in the bag from her claws or teeth. Not sure which was the culprit, but you and I can only imagine.

Pixie has always liked things that make crinkly noises (like femine hygiene products in their wrappers) or that are easy to carry from room to room (like the catnip mice mentioned in a previous entry) or things that smell good (like anything with catnip) or anything squishy (again the catnip mouse) and even live things like bugs and small creatures that have wandered into her path (birds in the stove exhaust – which is another story.)

The marshmallows would meet all of the criteria of a good toy except being alive, so I guess four out of five can’t be bad. At least Pixie doesn’t mind.