7 ms·
My cat is indoors only and made a couple escape attempts that were a little traumatizing for me (helicopter cat mom here), so while I considered getting him a l
by eigenstuff 8y ago
My cat is indoors only and made a couple escape attempts that were a little traumatizing for me (helicopter cat mom here), so while I considered getting him a leash once, I ultimately decided against it because I was afraid it'd make him a little more comfortable with the outside world and might emboldened him to make more escape attempts in the future. Not happening in a rural place where there's coyotes, oh hell no.
So instead of walks, we play catch. I wad up paper scraps and throw them and he'll leap into the air to catch them with his paws or swat them away. His ability to catch is honestly amazing to me, he gets it the vast majority of the time, and sometimes he'll leap a good 3 feet in the air, it's super impressive. It's also extremely entertaining! I have a lot of fun with "cat baseball practice", and I think the reason he's so responsive to paper wads is because those were the only cat toys I had for him as a kitten, so every time he hears the sound of paper crumpling he perks up and comes running.
He also loves diving into 12 pack cardboard boxes with the ends ripped off to make them into a tube. My living room floor is constantly covered in trash cat toys but I love it.
- mmagin 8y agoI also recommend cable ties (the long ones that won't be accidentally swallowed).
- Regardsyjc 8y agoMy mom taught her cat to fetch with thin plastic rings the size of bracelets. She'd sort of chuck them like a mini Frisbee and her cat would swipe them out of the air like a pro athlete. She used to get her cat toys but they had a tendency of mysteriously disappearing forever.
- krallja 8y agoThey are all under the refrigerator. Guaranteed to find them, along with milk jug rings, hair ties, and other circles.
- fjsolwmv 8y agoYour cat wants to go outside but you intentionally lock it in? That's abuse, even beyond the abuse that helicopter parenting entails.
- alexilliamson 8y agoNot sure if keeping real kids safe from coyotes would meet most people's definition of abuse or helicopter parenting.
- leetcrew 8y agodo you feed a dog every time it wants to eat?
- ianai 8y agoWhich is also a good comparison with my cat. I give him food anytime he asks. He was homeless before I moved into this apartment. I consider it a chance to “make up” for lost happy experiences.
- leetcrew 8y agoI don't think this is a very good comparison. dogs are significantly more likely to overeat than cats. some cats will overeat too of course, but it's less common. maybe feeding was a bad example, but my point is that animals often want to do things that they don't understand the consequences of. my parents' cat really likes to jump on the stove, but we have to discourage him from doing this so he doesn't jump on a 400° griddle.