Category Archives

Blog

Pet Toy Reviews: Mystery Motion Toy for Cats!

Published in and tagged , on by Lindsay

When Christmas rolls around and family is nice enough to buy your pets a giftcard for PetCo or PetSmart or the like, you wanna get something real good so your pets are alike “Yeah, that Christmas was AWESOME.” Last year, while wandering through PetSmart, we came upon a interesting cat toy known as the Mystery Motion Electronic Cat Toy (Or, what it is sometimes called after we bought it, the Robot Blanket Thing.)

Myyyyssstery Motion Toy for cats!

Myyyyssstery Motion Toy for cats!

James will often make the unwise decision of running his hand under blankets while the cats watch, wide-eyed, facisnated, at this THING THAT IS MOVING UNDER THE BLANKET. This usually ends with James going “OW MY HAND” after one or both felines pounce on his hidden hand, depending on the thickness of the blanket

Due to this activity, we are well aware of how intoxicating it is for Rocky and Marta when it comes to mysterious things moving under billowy objects. As such, we knew the Mystery Motion Electronic Cat Toy was sure to be a hit. (Well, as sure as a person allows themselves be when it comes to buying any toy for a cat, considering most cats have a higher ratio of snubbing something you know they will like).

The MMECT takes 3 AA batteries. Yes, it is an odd number. Yes, that bothers my OCD. Nevertheless, these batteries power the mystical robot arm that lives under the blanket. The robotic part itself is circular, with a light fabric that covers and conceals the circular portion of the robot. Attached to a track that goes around the robot is plastic stick arm, which is the piece that actually does the moving when turned on. At the end of the arm on the model we got was a tuft of feathers. I’ve seen that there are other models that end in pseudo mouse shapes – this would have been less likely to be successful, as Rocky and Marta have a great fondness for tuffty feathered toys.

As soon as we activated the MMECT….eh, Robot Blanket Thing, both cats got saucer eyes. What is that blanket? Why is something moving under it? WE MUST DESTROY IT WITH OUR CAT REFLEXES.

Cats with UTTER FASCINATION when the Robo-Armed Mystery Motion Toy is on

Cats with UTTER FASCINATION when the Robo-Armed Mystery Motion Toy is on

The Robot Blanket comes with 4 speeds to choose from: Low, Medium, High, and Random, which all pretty much follow the speeds you’d expect them to when set. The speed we typically leave it at is Random, mainly for two reasons: The alternation between low-medium-high makes the cats pay more attention to the toy, and Random happens to be the setting right before turning the toy to “Off”, as cycling through the speeds is what activates and deactivates it.

A mild concern to watch out for, or at least be aware of as it sometimes leads instances that would make excellent Cat Video content: there isn’t any form of textured bottom to this toy, it’s robot part is all slick plastic. So, if you have hardwood or tiled floor, turn it on, and have a cat that likes to run from one end of the room to the other in order to CATCH THE THING UNDER THE BLANKET(!), you may end up with a kitty that slides on the robot blanket straight into the couch, wall, stairs, etc.

If on a slick floor, usage of Robo-Blankey Mystery Toy can end in Cat-Couch-Splat

If on a slick floor, usage of Robo-Blankey Mystery Toy can end in Cat-Couch-Splat

Assuming your cat only gets vaguely bonked and doesn’t knock over anything breakable, this usually isn’t too terrible of a problem. The only other downside to Robot Blanket: he has a heavy appetite for BATTERIES. I highly recommend that if you don’t want to replace batteries every 2 weeks to be in the same room as the kitty playing with the toy. When the inevitable moment of Cat Boredom crashes down, and your cat is just chilling next to the toy while the arm feebly baps into kitty’s bum, you will be glad you’re nearby to turn the toy off and save the battery juice for next time.

When cats get bored of Robo-Mystery-Blanky-Toy, it will inevitably run out of batteries.

When cats get bored of Robo-Mystery-Blanky-Toy, it will inevitably run out of batteries.

Overall, this toy is probably one of the most-played with items I’ve ever gotten as a cat owner. The cats will even make it evident that they wanna play by pouncing on the robot when it’s off, or staring at it and then looking up and meowing sadly to the Humans to say “Hey why isn’t this working?”

The Mystery Motion Electronic Cat Toy runs somewhere between $25 to $35 dollars depending on where you get it or if it happens to be on sale. Or $0 if you have a gift card that covers it and happen to use it 😉

The desire for more Mystery leads to cats bapping the toy when it's off to get it turned on by The Humans.

The desire for more Mystery leads to cats bapping the toy when it’s off to get it turned on by The Humans.

Pet Toy Reviews: Snacky Mouse Fails a Bit

Published in and tagged on by Lindsay

My cats are treat fiends. There’s only been a handful of cat treats that they won’t eat,and we’re doomed to accidentally trick them into thinking they are getting a treat if we open any sort of resealable bag. They have a particular fondness for Temptations, so when we came upon the Temptations Snacky Mouse while shopping for pet stuff one day, we were certain it would be a snacky cat win.

Snacky Mouse from Temptations

Snacky Mouse from Temptations

The mouse is designed as a weeble-wobble style of toy – mostly hollow with a heavy,rounded bottom. The overall lightweight top with the heavy bottom is meant to entice the felines to bap and bop Snacky Mouse until treats spill out. He’s got several holes placed (assumably) in strategetic locations for treat placement, which doubles as places that reward the cat with said placed treats. Plus, he’s pretty cute.

The expected, delightful response would be for the cats to bap Snacky Mouse happily for snacks.

The expected, delightful response would be for the cats to bap Snacky Mouse happily for snacks.

When we eagerly set up Snacky Mouse blatantly stuffed with treats, the results were less than satisfying:

  1. Rocky (boy kitty) was immediately excited because HEY TREATS! Marta (younger, girl cat) mostly observed because she doesn’t like stepping in Rocky’s business if she’s not inclined to do so.
  2. Rocky fully aware that we hand out treats, ignores the Snacky Mouse. We are the giver of treats, who is this Snacky Mouse?
  3. After some coaxing, Rocky realizes “Hey, that weird thing has snacks in it.” We eagerly awaited for him to cutely bap and paw to get the treats.
  4. He mostly just stares
  5. And staaaaaaares. Then, action! Rocky leans close to Snacky Mouse, surely he will start with the cute bapping and pawing!
  6. Instead, he mostly shoved the flat part of his head at Snacky Mouse until all the treats tipped out within 2 seconds, then ate all of them. Marta vaguely watched from 5 feet away.
  7. After Snacky Mouse was empty, Rocky proceeded to ignore it again, then fussed at Humans for more snacks.

Here’s a comic-based summary of typical Snacky Mouse interaction from Rocky:

The actual cat reaction to Snacky Mouse was less exciting.

The actual cat reaction to Snacky Mouse was less exciting.

Although his cuteness appeals to the Humans, sadly, Snacky Mouse is a failure in our household for cats who prefer their treats not involve much work.

Overall Ranking: 1 out of 5 Cat Stares.

Epilogue

Not long after I wrote this review (but before I published it onto The Internets), Rocky was randomly making noises in the middle of the night with something annoying noisy. The next day, it was discovered that he had suddenly found Snacky Mouse again (with no snacks) and had developed a fascination for picking Snacky up and repeatedly dropping it. We’re under the assumption that Snacky smells enough like treats now to engage Rocky at random points of the day, including in the middle of the night, so perhaps the Snacky Mouse now has a 2 out of 5 Cat Stares ranking now.