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PRODUCT REVIEW and MYSTERY: The Case of the Neko Flies String

Your cats are bored. They get into fights. They bite your ankles or the just lay around with a glazed look in their eyes. They're little hunters with nothing to hunt (unless you let them outside, but please don't do that!). Can you imagine not having an outlet for your deepest desires? To be crass, that would really stink.

I try to have play time with my cats every night, but getting them to chase after a toy can be daunting because my cats are either 2 years old or 12 years old or older. What would I use that appeals to all of them?

Some cats are “air hunters” while others prefer to stalk prey at the ground level, so I'd need a toy that works well dragged on the floor, mimicking the movements of a bug, and something I could gently whip back and forth to get my air hunters to jump.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Stan is the consummate high-flyer when Neko Flies are around.

Usually I've solved this problem by having more than one toy in my arsenal. I still believe that you should offer options for your cats, from small balls to faux mice and catnip laden toys. That said, I can only hold so many toys in my hand at one time and I needed something that covered all the bases. At last I've found a series of interactive toys that gets cats off their big behinds and turns the lights back on in their eyes. I give you, Neko Flies!

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Jellybean Mel inspects mysterious package.

Unlike many wand toys I've used in the past, Neko Flies feel well made. Their clear plastic rod has a comfortable rubber grip. At the opposite end of the grip is a clip with a charming braided green and black cord that's attached to a variety of “Lures” that resemble and move like real bugs or mice.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Gracey grabs her Kattiepede.

Ellen, the creator of Neko Flies, underscored the importance of creating unique, carefully crafted (some elements are done by hand) toys that are as safe as possible for cats. She told me they constantly look for ways to improve their product, from finding ways to use less glue (they already only use a few drops), to finding thicker material for the wings of their Kragonfly cat toy as well as for better ways to anchor the loop into the toy so it doesn't pull free when cats tug on it. Ellen seems almost obsessed with designing toys that truly appeal to cats and are not just a collection of feathers glued to a string or that utilize materials that are so cheap they fall apart after one use.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. What IS this?!

It was tempting to write the world's shortest review by stating: I LOVE NEKO FLIES. Rather, my CATS love Neko Flies.

But then something happened…

One of the cats bit the green and black cord, severing one-third off it, along with the Kragonfly. I took the fly away so they wouldn't eat it, thinking I would just trim the end of the cord and reattach the Fly to it. In the meantime, since I was cooking dinner and trying to play with the cats at the same time, I would just have them chase after the string, without the toy attached because they seemed to like it just fine.

Ahhh…hindsight is 20-20 vision, as they say.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Love at first bite.

I'd gotten into the habit of hiding the Neko Flies where the cats couldn't get at it to keep them from destroying it. These toys are SO ENTICING you can't leave them laying around. It's just not safe. Really. If only I had READ THE BOX the Neko Flies came in because I would have seen the WARNING on it. I didn't read the WARNING on their web site, either, which I'm sharing with you here:

Some cats become so enamored and hooked on NEKO FLIES that they have been known to try and get the toy off a shelf by themselves! This is an interactive toy for a human to play with the kitty, so keep your Neko flies tucked safely tucked away in a drawer or closet until you are ready to play with your cat again!

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[Neko Flies Lure is attached to a card with this warning printing on it. See? They told me so!]

“Neko Flies are designed as a toy for you and your cat to play with together. The lures at the end are designed to move in a lifelike way which is a great part of their appeal, even to cats who usually are not interested in toys or playing. However, these toys are not intended to be left with a cat to chew or destroy (as she would actual live prey). Once your cat manages to catch a toy you should praise her and then get her to release it right back to you by offering her a really tasty treat - doing a "bait-and-switch" the way you would with a human toddler or a dog who have gotten something you don't want them to possess. Because the Neko Flies lure toys are so enticing to cats, there is a warning that they should never be left anywhere your cat can get to them without your participation. This is a wand toy, not a chew toy! Neko Flies satisfy your cat's primal instinct to hunt and chase - but it is up to you to then protect the lures from your cat's instinct to "kill!"”

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson.

I turned my back on my cats to check on dinner. I didn't even leave them alone for more than a minute. I looked back and the green and black cord was one-third the length it had been. Clearly, one of the cats had chewed it off and possibly EATEN IT. In decades of being a cat-mom, this was the first time I ever had to worry that a cat ingested such a large part of a toy.

I searched the living room. I knew the culprits were either my tiny foster cat, Mabel or my big bruiser, the DOOD. I had a bad feeling it was DOOD because he's, well, not the sharpest pencil in the box.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Stanley goes nuts for Neko.

I couldn't find a thing. In a panic, I called Neko Chan, home to Neko Flies. Ellen, herself, called me back right away. We talked about what materials were used in the cord (polyester).I called the ER Vet and told them about what material I believe one of the cats ingested and they suggested I bring both cats down, spend $1500.00 per cat on endoscopy-that was IF they could get an internist to come to work late on a Sunday night. They also told me to get a cat to vomit is some sort of “holy grail” treatment because the chemicals they might use to make them vomit usually kills them.They told me to watch for the cat to become listless, vomit, not eat and if that happened to RUSH them in for EMERGENCY SURGERY because the cord could twist up in the intestines and basically KILL the cat.

OR…it might pass on its own…out the “other” end.

Great.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Petey prepares to pounce.

The next few days were absolute Hell on my nerves. I ripped apart the living room the next day and checked everywhere I could, but no string was found. I hovered over the DOOD and Mabel, but they ate as usual and seemed unaffected. Then I started to worry that maybe it wasn't them, but another cat. I have 9 cats running around! This was going to end badly, I just knew it.

Ellen checked in with me, hopeful I had good news, but there was no sign of the missing string. I thought maybe I was getting Alzheimer's and this was the first sign? I was so paranoid that I carried the remaining section of cord in my purse, in case I had to take one of the cats to the ER so they would know what to look for yet still…nothing.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Gracey and Joey enjoying their new toy..

Six WEEKS passed. I was getting breakfast ready for the kittens and I saw a GREEN ball with pale colored ball next to it on a paper towel on the counter. I asked Sam what it was and he said he found it when he was scooping the litter pan. I looked at it for a moment, then the alarms went off in my head. It was cat excrement with the STRING from the Neko Flies in it!

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Woah. Green Poo (and no ham).

Being the offspring of two scientists, I HAD to get a magnifying glass out and inspect the green stool. We feed our cats a raw diet so their stool is VERY pale, hard and dry. I teased apart the green ball and saw fibers. I put the section of string I had in my purse next to the questionable object and the color matched. Whoever ate the string passed, at least some of it out. Thank God.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. Six weeks later, the green string is found.

Although I'll never know if that was ALL of the string, hopefully it was enough so that it won't adversely effect the cat who ate it (most likely the DOOD). I don't know if the raw diet slowed the process down since the cats don't pass much stool or if it helped. All I care about is that my cats are fine and my pocket still has a few bucks in it.

After all this would I still tell you to go out and buy Neko Flies. Absolutely, YES I would! I want you to know about my foolishness so that you truly appreciate the warning from NekoChan. Their toys are so enticing we must be careful in how we use them and our reward for that mindfulness is that our cats will get the exercise they need and have their hunting desire sated. I'm still using the Kattipede today and hope to add more Lures to my collection soon.

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If you'd like your very own Neko Flies: Foxifur Kittenator with Rod, simply leave a comment in this post to enter. Tell me what's the weirdest thing your cat has eaten or just give me a good reason why you should win. Make it funny, entertaining, creative.

Best entry as Judged by me, Robin Olson of Covered in Cat Hair, will win ONE FOXIFUR KITTENATOR with ROD. You may only leave ONE comment for ONE CHANCE to win per person. This Giveaway ends FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 at 11:11 AM EST and is open to residents of the USA and CANADA (yay Canada!) only (sorry guys outside of those areas!). Rules, quantities and whatever else I forgot are subject to change without notice.

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©2013 Robin A.F. Olson. DOOD.

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After careful consideration, from time to time I write product reviews. If you see it here, it's because, at LEAST I think it's worth you knowing about even if I have an issue with it and, at BEST, I think it's amazing and we should all have one, two or more of whatever it is I'm reviewing. I get NO reimbursement for writing these reviews, though to write a review I am supplied with the item, as I was in this case. This review is MY OPINION, ONLY. The result you experience using this product may differ (I can only hope there will not be any ER Vet visits!).

Comments

One of mine adores eating crinkly plastic wrappers.  We watch her very carefully, and put things in the garbage regularly, but we've still found crinkly plastic in the litter box occasionally.  Another one used to like eating any guinea pig pellets that may have been tossed out of the cage by the guinea pig.  Seeing as how their major ingredient is timothy hay, they're hardly the sort of thing one would think an obligate carnivore would like to eat.  And yet another one, who I had many years ago, and was an inside/outside cat, loved corn cobs.  Many times we'd seem him coming prancing proudly home with a less than savoury corn cob in his mouth.  None of my current cats go outside, so they don't get the chance to raid garbage like that cat did.

I would love to win a Neko Flies today for my foster kittens. As you know socialization is a big part of fostering and I have been able to "win" over the most scared cat with time spent playing with them and getting them to trust me. I can just imagine some of the kittens I take in having a blast flying through the air trying to "catch" there prey.

Wallingford gets bored easily and when he gets bored he:


Pees on something as in my shoes, every rug on the floor, my LPs - well, you get the picture


He goes into the basement and pees on something random


He jumps up on counters and nudges things onto the floor like big cans of cat food that put cuts into my linoleum floor (it was only 6 days old!)


He jumps on the counter and tries to open the cupboard doors so he can get to the cat treats


He jumps on the counter and then does Parkour to cross over the back of the stove - whether or not it is on


He jumps on Holly who has really bad arthritis  She screams and Sampson runs over to help her and then she screams at Sampson


He bites me on the ankle hard enough to draw blood then runs away - fast


My mental health depends on keeping him un-bored at all times.  PLEASE SEND ME THE NEKKO  FLY!


Sincerely,


Memory Russell

I have a new adopted 4 mos old kitten that seems to think hard plastic is gourmet food.  I have to keep a vigilant eye on him and keep packing things in boxes that might get him into trouble!  He also thinks jewelry--especially earrings--is worn just so he can rip it out and eyeglasses?  Well, of course, they are there for him!  Ive been making and buying toys to keep him occupied.  These flies look like they might be just the teaser he would love.

Quite simply, I need peace in the house again!  I have 9 cats in the house and I need to find something that will entertain them and get their energy out instead of stalking each other like tigers! 

I have a CH cat who adores playing. She brings me such joy when I see her bunny hop around after her laser light or other toys. I would love to see what she does with a Neko toy.

thanks!

That looks absolutely awesome! My kids love Da Bird - and I am quite certain this would also be right up their alley! With Da Bird, I need to put it away when playtime is over - and it sounds like I would need to do the same with Neko Flies! The boys would love to win one, but if they don't - they will send me, their loyal minion on a hunt to find one for them...they are clever that way ;)

So a week or so after my 3 year old's birthday, my very fluffy main coon cat named Tiffany jumps up on the couch next to me and I see she has something stuck in her 'fluffy pants' (long back leg hair). She gets the occasional cling-on, but this was something else, as I could see it was white. So I pull on it thinking maybe a cling-on has picked something up with it, only to hear her yowl loudly. She jumps down/I finish pulling to reveal that I just pulled about a foot of balloon string right out of her bottom. I was horrified to be holding a length of baby pink ribbon covered in cat poo. It was quite the mystery since we had no idea how she got it until we later found a popped balloon carcass in our daughters bedroom, that she has brought up there unbeknownst to us. It was missing a good length of its string, which was what I apparently found in Tiffany later. I feel SOO lucky that Tiffany passed the string without any issues. She might have gotten sick and we would have had no idea why. Scary thought. So glad the DOOD is ok!

Our cat really doesn't eat much weird stuff, but she is obsessed with bread in plastic bags.  She doesn't eat it, but she will sit there and lick on it like crazy!

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If you'd like your very own Neko Flies: Foxifur Kittenator with Rod, simply leave a comment in this post to enter. Tell me what's the weirdest thing your cat has eaten or just give me a good reason why you should win. Make it funny, entertaining, creative.

Our youngest, Baby Su, loves lemon sandwich creme cookies.  Because everyone who knows anything about cats will tell you cats HATE anything to do with citrus, I thought this was a fluke at first.  Many lemon cookie bits later, I know it isn't.  That's my funny, entertaining and creative bizarro cat-eating-weird-stuff story, and I'm stickin' to it.  Do you think Baby Su would get back on the right track if she had a Neko Flies Foxifur Kittenator with Rod?  *I do* ;)

Glad your story ended well, Robin!  It's always a relief to see foolishly-ingested items come out one way or the other!  My two loves have in the past eaten that metallic tinsel toy, which has passed through slightly less colorful than it passed in.  They've also put 'hits' out on Da Bird, which often came out of a play session either dissheveled or snapped in half!  My boy cat has always tried to get my goat by chewing on electrical plugs (not plugged in, but nonetheless destroyed), and recently, at age 13, has begun to pluck the glasses off of my face when I haven't jumped out of bed quickly enough to fetch his breakfast.  Both he and his sister have become kind of complacent upper-middle-aged cats, and would surely adore one of these amazing toys to re-ignite their inner kitten.  Thanks for the chance to win, and good luck to us all!

Glad your story ended well, Robin!  It's always a relief to see foolishly-ingested items come out one way or the other!  My two loves have in the past eaten that metallic tinsel toy, which has passed through slightly less colorful than it passed in.  They've also put 'hits' out on Da Bird, which often came out of a play session either dissheveled or snapped in half!  My boy cat has always tried to get my goat by chewing on electrical plugs (not plugged in, but nonetheless destroyed), and recently, at age 13, has begun to pluck the glasses off of my face when I haven't jumped out of bed quickly enough to fetch his breakfast.  Both he and his sister have become kind of complacent upper-middle-aged cats, and would surely adore one of these amazing toys to re-ignite their inner kitten.  Thanks for the chance to win, and good luck to us all!

My boy likes all sorts of strange things, but that is probably "normal" for cats.  He loves anything elastic - I have to hide all my hair bands, and any rubber bands go straight to the trash.  He also goes crazy for twist-ties, which go straight to the trash as well!  He is a very funny boy because he loves his leafy greens.  Whatever I'm eating, from kale to broccoli, he has to have some, and he chows down on it!  He loves his grasses.

My girl has a sweet tooth.  I know they say that cats don't have the ability to taste "sweet", but this girl loves desserts, just like her Mama.  I have found that her most favorite thing is Honey-Nut Cheerios.  Goes nuts for the stuff!  So silly.

My guys would go cuckoo for the Neko Flies!  My boy is a jumper/hunter, and my girl likes to chase on the ground.  Every night we get out the feathers-on-a-string, and they go crazy.  They would love it!

Working as a vet tech, I knew the dangers of cats swallowing dental floss. So what do I do? I floss my teeth and toss it in the waste basket. My cat, Lucky, who is frolicking along the rainbow bridge as we speak, LOVED to sit on the counter and watch me floss my teeth. Sometimes he would even let me floss his teeth, too. So one day as I'm getting ready for work, I see Lucky pawing at his mouth in the bathroom. I call his name and he turns to look at me and he has the same dental floss I just used danging out of one side of his mouth. I instantly had flashes of Lucky at the vet either being sedated to have the floss unwrapped from his tongue or worse, surgery to have it removed from his intestines. I put professional baseball players to shame in that moment as I dove into the bathroom to scoop Lucky up and remove the floss before he had a chance to swallow it.


Words of wisdom I learned from this experience: Flush the Floss.


As for a good reason as to why I should win, well, I've got three of the cutest, fuzziest reasons ever. But that doesn't make me any different than anyone else who follows your page. But! My kitten, Conchita Bobbita, would no doubt LOVE a Neko Flyer toy. I am convinced Lucky picked her out especially for me and set her in my path, and sometimes I think a little bit of him got reincarnated into her just so he could keep watching over me (and to make sure I continue to flush my floss).

Would love to win this toy!

Hi Robin...   long ago, in the pre-rescue days (when folks thougt I was crazy because I had two cats) I had a Maine Coon I'd purchased as a kitten (hey, we grow and learn).  He was actually the poster boy for not buying a cat that's his own 3rd cousin - he was not too bright.  I was scrubbing a greasy frying pan with a Brillo pad, set the pan in the kitchen sink to soak for a few minutes, and when I returned to the kitchen - no pad.  Could it be?  Nah, he couldn't be that stupid, could he?  As if to answer me, he made eye contact and horked up some steel wool. 

I peered at the X-ray on the light-up thingy and asked, "is that his stomach?"  The emergency vet (please scan your Mastercard to gain entry to the lobby) scowled and replied - "no, that's the Brillo pad, blown up inside his stomach."  They said he was going to die, too involved for surgery, nothing could be done, but pack him full of Metamucil and hope for the best.

Good thing about not being too bright - HE didn't know he was supposed to die.  Over the course of the next week, I went through an entire container of Metamucil and collected an entire Brillo pad from his stool in the litter box.  He lived 13 more years - and I never, ever again walked away from the sink when I was doing dishes.

My new baby kitten Miklo loves to swat at flies and moths.  If you see him starring at the sky and then a giant leap in the vertical direction, dont be startled its my little fly catcher!  Other than that what melts my heart it when he runs around the house with a leaf in his mouth, almost bigger than him, but we wont tell him.

Quite a few years back at Christmas time I had purchased some toys for the two cats I had then.  A couple of the toys were the ones that were on an elasticized string so the toy could be tied to something and bounce when a cat played with it.  It being Christmas I had unwrapped the toys and just set them aside to unwind the string later.  I did not put the toys up high because I did not think they would be bothered where I put them.  I was wrong.


A little later in the day, I reached for the toys because I was going to set them up for play.  I picked up one and the elasticized string was missing.  I looked all over for it.  I could not figure out what had happened to it.  A little while later I found it still wrapped as it was on the card with the toy.  It had been vomited up by one of the two cats, probably the male.  Apparently he chewed it off the toy and swallowed it whole.  That scared the living daylights out of me.


To this day string is a no-no around my current cats.  I don't even discard dental floss in a waste basket.  I put it in a secure plastic bag out of the reach of my cats.  I do this because one of my cats would like to get his paws on it.  And I don't buy those dangling toys any more.

And, by the way Robin, I love you blogs and all the pictures you post.  You tell a good story.  Thanks!!

I haven't seen the two who own me eat anything weird, other than chomp, when they think I'm not looking, on the spider plant. I did have a cat who adored cantaloupe. Every time I had it, I had to give him some or he'd go into the compost bin to get the rind, drag it out and gnaw on it.

The best reason for me to win is that I have a diva who is not interested in any of the toys I procure for her. She desperately need exercise but looks at me as if I'm insane. I have been trying, for 4 years now, to find just the right toy to entice her to play. I wonder if this could be the one.

My cat Domino would always eat the Christmas tinsel off the tree.  It never occurred to me at the time that putting that on there might be harmful, and frankly, I never caught her doing it, so I didn't realize it was happening until the litterbox became very holiday "festive"!  Needless to say, we had tinsel- free trees after that.  Fortunately, she never seemed to have a problem with her sparkly diet!

My cat Sonny is very strange something when it comes to food. He sometimes paws his dry food out onto the kitchen floor and then eat it. It's so funny to watch :)  
Another funny this is every Sunday I have a Omelette, hashbrowns and bacon for breakfast. When I start breaking the bacon in half to eat it, guess who comes running.. Sonny. He sits there with a cute little puppy dog face. Looking at his cute face.. aaaaack!!! Cuteness affect, so I give him a little and he loves it :)

Sonny and I love your blog and reading about Waffles and Katie, and would really like to win a Neko Flies!! Sonny loves to jump too :)

I love your journals with your furbabies. I had a similar experience several years ago. My boy, Chewbacca was always underfoot while I was fixing lunch. I decided to distract him with a bologna wrapper, the thin red plastic around one slice. I tossed it on the floor, finished making the sandwich,  turned around and it was gone! Instant panic. Just as you did, we searched every crack and crevice. Call to the Vet, give Peroxide to the cat to induce vomiting.  Never found it. Not even in the litter box. Chewbacca lived another 10 years. I lost him this year to renal disease.  

As I sat here reading this I was trying to think of the strangest things the cats have ever eaten. All that was coming to mind was the weird thigs that my guide dog Tennyson has eaten.

 

Saul our one year old kitten however has managed to cause us a number of times to go huh? Since   we adopted our wonderful little orange fluff ball he has taken the cake so to speak when it comes to weird things. Saul has eaten bread, fruit of different kinds, meat of course, and plastic bowls. Yes, you read that correct. We keep the grain free cat food that the cats do not finish in cleaned out butter dishes. One evening the bowl got left out by mistake and when he discovered it he picked up the bowl in his mouth and carried it down to the floor where he proceeded to pull off the lid of the bowl. In the process he managed to bite off some of the edge of the bowl and swallowed it along with the contents of the dish.

 

Thank goodness Saul is ok but one thing is for sure, we are careful to make sure that the bowls get put away properly in the refrigerator even if a bowl we use is empty. Grin! 

Dear Robin - been there, done that!  I have actually had more than one cat with odd eating issues.  Maggie, my very first kitten as an adult managed to get at my sister's embroidery floss when she was only 9 weeks old.  I had no idea, she just was not acting like herself.  Thank god I listened to my mothering instincts and brought her to the vet.  She had a strangulated intestine and needed emergency surgery.  One expensive surgery (and one call from the vet to see if I wanted him to spay her "while he was in there") later and she was thankfully ok and my sister was minus one hobby.

Our other cat, Fidget, did not like any typcial cat loving people food.  You could leave tuna, chicken, steak, etc out but you better not take your eye off your salad!  She as a very nervous cat and would often run around scared at any new sound.  We would often see her running in terror only to stop short if she passed a salad.  :)

Then when my mother develop sudden cat allergies, I had to temporarily absorb her cat into my house until I could find an appropriate, adult only, only pet household for her.  The only problem with that is that she had stressed induced Pica.  Pica is a mental condition that causes people and animals to crave eating non food items.  Her item of choice?  Paper.  If any paper was left unsupervised, she would eat it whole.  So for the six months it took us to find her an appropriate home, we have to put all our papers where Cleo could not get to them. Try listening to a 4 year old explain to grandma why all her coloring book had to be sealed away in rubbermaid because of the cat.

Why should I win the Neko Flies?  Because I love Neko Flies!  Or my cats do.  ;)  I have one right now that I use with my three foster failures (shelter "rejects" that no one else would want due to health or behvior issues) and have to keep it locked away in a closet so they don't get to it when I am not around. 

But I would really love to have another one to use with my foster kittens.  I primarily foster feral kittens or very sick failure to thrive kittens.  And I truly believe that the bond they form with me while playing (or learning to play in the case of the ferals) is what makes the difference between life and death for many of them.  Since so many of my fosters are "long shots" in the terms of placement because of weird health issues and one of my owned cats has a compromised immune system, I am very careful not to share toys with the fosters and my owned cats.  Most often I am spending all my "extra" money on different types of cat food to try to entice them to eat so there is none left over for an slightly more expensive (but totally worth the cost) toy like Neko Flies.

My current foster, Anya who is a 3 month old feral kitten recovering from a leg abscess, hopes we win!

Our beloved kitty, RT a/k/a boogerhead, was an adventurous eater. Food was everything to him, especially whatever the hoomins in the house were eating. So imagine our surprise one Christmas when we discovered he ate green olives.  He also loved salsa.  He tried to steal a banana once which resulted in a chase around the house resulting in a tackle in the dining room.  He was quite the gourmand!

I would love to win this for my two cats.  Haven't seen any green poop lately, so it would be interesting to have some ;)  

My cats have been pretty good about not eating things, but I keep all potentially dangerous toys and plants away from them.  I did have a Persian, Shaton, that swallowed nearly a whole string of curly ribbon once on a xmas package.  I pulled and pulled and was shocked at how much had gone down already.  Never left any curly ribbon on anything out again, and was very lucky I caught her in the act.

Hi! My kitty, Cookie, has a weird habit of chewing on plastic. You have a bag laying around the house? He chews on it. Plastic wrapper? Chews on it. And I have to constantly pay attention so that he doesn't really eat it, which happened two weeks ago when he was alone with my boyfriend. So my boyfriend was drinking chocolate milk with a straw that was wrapped in plastic, when I sent him a message (I was at my parents'). He read it and didn't pay attention to Cookie for 15 seconds, and when he looked back, he saw him eating the plastic. Fortunately, my boyfriend was able to remove a big part of the plastic from Cookie's mouth, even though he still had a part of it in his belly. 

 

Another thing Cookie just loves is eating my bracelets. I do them myself, so I have a bunch of them, and each time I wear one (or more) and that Cookie is on my lap or whatever, he chews on them... He already has broken like 3 of them, which is not that much, but still! I'm afraid he would swallow the pearls.

 

Well, I think that's all for the weird stuff my kitty likes to eat. 

Hi Robin,

I don't have one particular silly cat story. Charlie and Lucy manage to keep me entertained by their silliness most of the time.  Charlie reminds me a lot of the DOOD, and when you mentioned him not being the sharpest pencil in the box, I had to laugh! I'm afraid I'm becoming the crazy cat lady, carrying more photos of my cats on my phone than I have of my grown kids! I know Charlie and Lucy would love the Neko Flies toy. We seem to be a little bored with our Cat Dancer and our Feline Flyer, not to mention our fuzzy mousies, bouncy balls, etc! We do love our lazer pointer mouse toy, but could use some variety (:!

xo,

Barb, Charlie and Lucy

glad that didn't end badly....

as for weird things - shortly after finalizing the adoption for Tim and Tom, my 10 year old brothers, I hear a "dink" noise from the kitchen. Tim is up on the counter, having ripped open a bag of dark chocolate M&Ms I bought fo my sister-in-law and hockey pucking them to the floor for his brother Tommy to eat. Being sure he hadn't eaten more than a couple, I hid the bag.

But it gets better....about a week later, I hear a similar noise (keep in mind in both cases it is after midnight of course). I sigh, contemplate NOT getting up and finally drag myself to the kitchen. Only to find Tim on the counter, an open cabinet door and my pill box smashed open from hitting the floor. As I walk in, I hear Tommy going "crunch crunch crunch". Crap - he ate something. I grab all the pills and put them back in some order to discover that I am missing...a birth control pill. Really??? I could have paniced but he seemed OK. Called the vet the next morning to be assured by the tech (after asking ALL the vets) that he should be fine. I am positive they still tell that story around there.

My cats really haven't eaten anything weird (knock on wood), but I've had my eye on Neko Flies for awhile.  I haven't yet gotten around to buying one though. Holly and Figaro need a Neko Flies toy because it would appeal to both of their hunting instincts. Figaro loves to chase toys on the ground, while Holly is more of an "air hunter".  Would love to get one of these to enjoy more interactive play time with my kitties!

So one day not long after I rescued 3 black orphan kittens one of them escaped the bathroom and decided to go on and adventure into the kitchen.   The smallest of the three, Faythe, managed to climb up onto the kitchen table. To this day I haven't a clue how she managed it, claws and determination I think.

On the kitchen were some hot dog rolls, we were going to have hot dogs for dinner.  They were freshly baked that morning at the bakery I worked at.   Well Faythe it seemed was determined to try all sorts of food, she'd tried to steal a taco from me around the same time.  When I came into the kitchen, I found Faythe carrying in her mouth a roll about as long as her!!  And she'd actually eaten a bite of it! 

She doesn't care for bread these days but...she was certainly determined to try everything she could!

So of course I did what anyone would do, I grabbed a camera! http://www.novelgrafix.com/istorage/faythebun.jpg  

Hi Robin, 

Yes - that is how to say his name "KEITH!" because he usually has some contraband in his mouth. And he knows it! As soon as I notice something (ANYTHING!) missing, I'll look & call as he runs out of my reach.

He has eaten: some/all of strings & elastic on toys; not one, not two, but THREE pairs of my flip-flops have BIG holes, holes that match the ones in a garden kneeling pad I used for excersizing. Add to his list a couple of pipecleaners, even the two that I had twisted together to keep him from eating, rubber bands (Even when we hid them, he fished 'em out of the drawer!), about 24 inches of the pull-cord from a Venetian blind, bites in EVERY bag of WBCL I bring in ... oh, and half of the band from my granddaughter's brand-new, white Crock. (The rubber shoes - "Crocks")

Although he hasn't actually eaten (not from lack of trying), my two pairs of Crocks have multiple bite-marks. Also bitten: any cardboard in the house, parts of a wood plant stand, several wood baskets, a couple of magazines, AND my senior cat's EAR! Yup! Por Celerie had to wear The Cone-of-Shame for almost a month while the (hole clear-through!) her ear healed. 

And yes, I DO play with toys with him! But he catches toys TO EAT THEM! He, and his "sister" were left-overs from a feral colony I cleaned up near our house. I have a softness for orange male cats. THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT! So, very different! His "sister" (aunt, if you follow the family history) is my Foster-fail, and a real sweet-heart. She plays fetch! Only cat I've had who repeats the game untill I get tired of it! And, she throws mousies - for herself!

But KEITH! really NEEDS a "special" toy!

Please! (So sorry, I'm so wordy. But I know I left off some of KEITH'S edibles.)

Penny

That would have scared me more than the fact that they ate it.. since cats digestion is really short, like under a day from input to output.  I am so glad everyone is OK.. 

I'd love to win, but I don't have a good story other than Twee "killed" my first Neko toy.. and i too can attest to the fact that they go after the toy even sitting out of view.. they all watched it being put away and went after it 

As for things eaten that is weird, my first cat Tig love donuts.  We used to buy him holes when ever we went grocery shopping.  One morning he was sitting with my husband eating his donut and went up to my husband and asked for something.  My husband asked him what he wanted and he pawed at my husband's coffee.

I have a cat who as a kitten, rifled through my handbag one day and found my bikini! He ate almost a quarter of the string from the top of my bikini! I found a pile of fresh cat barf and found part of the string therein. But inches were still missing! So 2 trips to the vet ER, 3 enemas later and thousands of dollars going towards the vet's new summer home, and he ended up being fine in the end! And his 'end' ended up fine as well! Ugh! You'd think he would have learned his lesson (3 enemas, c'mon man!) but he still tries to go through my pocketbooks, perhaps looking for some nice tasty accessories?? lol

I'd like to replace his cravings with a cool Neko Fly instead! :)

At Christmas time, my cat, Kacoon, started playing with the ribbons on the Christmas presents.  We had a lot of those curly ribbon bows. Somehow he managed to pull it apart in front of me and took off.  I chased him down and while chasing him saw the ribbon getting smaller and smaller as it went down.  I knew an ER visit was in order cause the string cut wrap around his intestines.  I had no clue that trying to get it to come up would be so awful.  My poor cat was nearly dead from the drugs.  Had the er vet told me this I would have at least watched a day or two.  After all this, he tells me I must have imagined the cat eating it.  We brought a very sick cat home and two days later he threw it up.  Little did I know though a new nightmare just began.  The chemicals used to induce vomitting that didn't induce vomitting, made his entire esphogus become infected and he could barely breathe.  We had to rush him to the ER again on Christmas day.  He did recover and lived 8 more years.  To this day, no ribbon is allowed in my home. 

Vinny would really love this, and Goulie could use the excerise!

We need a Nekko Fly because we have Toffee, our year-old, longhaired tabby. As you know, Robin, Toffee ate a string toy last January when I set it down for a few minutes to take a call from a relative in the hospital. That toy (a piece of frayed denim tied to a pole with a length of hemp) cost us $700, since we weren't sure which of our two kittens swallowed it, so both had to be X-rayed and given that scary, life-threatening Holy Grail vomiting drug you described. For the record, they start with a horse tranquilizer, and then they revive them with an antidote called xylazine. Most vets won't do this, so we had to go to the ER in the big 24/7 animal hospital. Luckily, it worked: Toffee threw up the toy, hooray! But then Toffee reacted badly to the xylazine and was over-sedated for 12 hours. That meant a second ER trip. When he finally woke up, after midnight, he immediately began looking for more toys and other dangerous stuff to eat. As you know, he ate our (former) cat sitter's hair elastic — and she is a vet tech. 

He ate something yesterday; I'm not sure what it was since I only caught him licking his chops with a guilty look on his face.

So we need a Nekko Fly because I need to read, and re-read, that warning page that comes with them.

Such a good review. I appreciate the first-hand advice, but am sorry you had to go through it. I will definitely try this toy for my 'hard-to-please' but 'loves-to-play' girl kitty.

I would love to win a Nekko Flies.   I think I need a Nekko Flies.   I have tried just about every wand toy out there.  Cheapy peacock feather thing - bought it, tried it.   They loved it.  Tiger especially *loves* feathers - for lunch!  Sparkly ball on a string wand toy.  Killed it.  Treeno thinks the string looks like the electric cords he likes to nom on.   Cat Charmer - favorite.  Until Shadow ate the fleece.   Da Bird - oh how they love that thing.  Except for Flame destroyed it.  Little catnip filled butterfly on a wire?   It is catnip wrapped in plastic....  Midnight is crazy for catnip, I'm glad I didn't pay retail, he had it shredded in one session.   These boys don't just play with their toys they DESTROY their toys.  I'm lucky I've never had to pay a big vet bill for the feathers and mouse tails and who knows what else they think they need to eat.   They need the challenge of the Nekko Flies.  And I will keep it where I keep my current supply of replacement wand toys - IN MY CAR.  It is the only safe place where the little monsters can't go to dig out their toys.

These boys don't limit themselves to eating toys - Treeno, besides chewing electric cords (I need stock in Phooey Spray), enjoys toast and jam while Shadow is positively obsessed with ice cream!  (if you try to eat ice cream around here you better put a serving out for Shadow too or you have to fight him off to eat your bowlful.)  None of them is as weird as DOOD and the broccoli ;)   However, at the rainbow bridge I'm sure my Chester is enjoying copious amounts of watermelon.  Slightly weirder, I'm sure whoever is running the mess at the Bridge has Brad's request for Doritos.   When he was living with me we had to be sure to never leave a bag unattended or we'd come back to find the hind end of Brad sticking out of the chip bag while the front end was happily nomming away on the chips inside the bag.

In the crazy food department though, I think no one can beat my childhood cat Fuzzy.  Fuzzy was a brown and white tiger and boy did she have attitude.  She told a pair of Great Danes to GET OUT of her yard a couple times.  She used to visit the neighbor's koi pond and go fishing.  My dad would keep the fish alive in a bucket and sneak them back in the dead of night ;)   She also had a sweet tooth and a penchant for toasted marshmallows.   We discovered this one night when he had a fire in the fireplace.  I was toasting, and I'd get a marshmallow all so perfectly puffed and golden, just the way I liked them.  Put it on the plate, get another one, toast it, turn around and my first mallow was GONE.  Repeat.  And again.  I thought my sister was stealing them ('cause she totally would you know!)  We were having a big fight about it when we watched Fuzzy sneak up to the plate, swipe the marshmallow and run off to enjoy it under the couch.  (Ok so I guess I owed my sister an apology.  hmpf.)  Sticky, gooey, sweet...  what exactly in that is appealing to an obligate carnivore?

Do you remember the silver tinsel that you draped on Christmas trees for that sparkly festive look?  You know where this story is going...When I was growing up my cat Princess loved to play with the tinsel hanging from the tree and chew on it.  So we hung the tinsel way up in the tree, however Princess learned how to crawl up in the tree, knocking down Christmas balls in the process of getting to her beloved tinsel.  One time, she actually brought the whole tree down but that is another story.  We thought we were so careful, but one day I noticed a flash of silver or something around the buttuck area of the cat.  Yes, it was a piece of tinsel hanging out!  Needless to say, that was the last day that we hung tinsel on the tree. 

Heart in my chest pounding,

With fervor my tail twitches,

With excitement my pupils grow,

Squeaks and chirps escape my throat,

All the while Mom is oblivious,

Until my claws sink deep into her tantilizing toes,

When the world is my playground,

This I must confess,

Control is something I don't possess,

My nose turns up at those lesser toys,

Oh to win a Neko Fly,

Only the best I must possess.

One of my cats, Reagan , has a fascination for BEN-GAY. I have never seen any thing like it. I can rub some on and no matter what part of the house he is in, he will sniff it out. He hops on my lap, and starts licking it off my knee. It's craZZZYY!

I know it's not quite eating it...but licking Ben-gay is pretty hilarious. What do you say? Does Reagan get the prize? MOL!!

Please enter us in the drawing!  Fortunately, the "Girls" don't eat to much weird stuff!

We have a habit of adopting older cats from our local Cats Protection branch, who have been in foster care for a while, and offer them a peaceful retirement home.

One of our lovely ladies, Layla, *loved* mint chocolate. She wasn't allowed any until she was diagnosed with a terminal, inoperable tumour. After that, we let her have whatever she liked. Her favourite treat was mint fondant matchsticks, covered in chocolate. You'd hold one for her, and she'd lick all the chocolate off leaving the mint fondant behind - which would disappear over the course of the evening! We'd break up a couple of sticks for her, and leave them on a plate.

One weekend, we were away, so asked our cat-friendly neighbour to feed the kitties for us. Her toddler daughter came in, saw the sticks we'd left for Layla, and ate them... and our neighbour replaced the box, not realising that they were for feline, not human, consumption! I was mortified when we were told that her daughter had been eating the cat food. Oh, well - didn't do her any harm!

Another of our venerable ladies, Tari, was hooked on Tandoori King Prawns, the spicier the better. We ended up having to get her her own portion when we got an Indian take-away, otherwise our life wouldn't be worth living! (Oh, and she loved chips, when we had fish and chips!)

I would love to receive a Neko Fly for our current two, who can't even catch a leaf, let alone anything else!

We had a cat that ate a section out of our mini blinds so that she could still look outside when they were closed.

Ever since I adopted my Scottish Fold, Piglet, I have taken a monthly birthday photo of him with a wax number candle.  Without fail, he chomps on it.  I even used a larger wooden #2 for his 2nd birthday last month, and he put teeth marks in that too.   He loves chasing bugs, so I have absolutely no doubt that he would go crazy for a Neko Flies toy.  I also think it would be helpful in interacting with my diabetic foster cat, who seems to have issues trusting humans after what I imagine was a rough life on the streets.

Great review! I cannot believe with all my cats and after all these years, I still have never gotten them a Neko interactive toy and really must do so. Glad your kitties are all okay...

Thank you for your review of the Neko Flies. I did not read the package, and began to worry when I saw how addictive this toy was. Gusto never tires of it, and when I leave it after play, he'll sometimes get it by himself and I find the entire toy -- wand, string, and fly -- somewhere else in the house. I will immediately stop leaving it out, thanks to your review. 

Louise

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