My cat animal companion, Jerome, loves to play with things on sticks or string. But not anything on a stick or a string. I've tried making tin foil balls and wrapping a piece of string around it -- no dice. His ferocious hunter instinct is only roused by toys with feathery bits or little strips of fabric on a stick.Ugh.
I'm somewhat ashamed to admit this on the Dollar Stretcher blog, but I have given in and paid $3.49 (plus tax) for a stick with feathers on it at the pet store. Jerome loved it -- he demonstrated his love by tearing it to shreds in a week. Double ugh. Not wanting to have to buy him one of these every week, I've been scouring dollar stores for toys (with success, but sometimes he just turns up his nose as if to say, "why on earth would I play with that?"). But yesterday I picked up a feathery artificial stem (fake flower) at a craft store for a flower arrangement for my home. It was on clearance for 30 cents.
Jerome spotted it immediately; his razor sharp predator instincts protecting the household from this feathered menace. Ah ha! For 10 -- 30 cents, I can get prey that will stimulate his little pea brain and won't make me feel like a chump for forking over almost four bucks for the same thing. Priceless.
