Entertaining cats

This is my mom's kitten, being entertained by something I put together in a spot of inspiration while on Long Island.

The wire is a Cat Dancer--a pretty neat, simple cat toy that seems to entertain a lot of cats pretty well. The randomness of the motion of the cardboard rolls on the end is impressive--it does appear to be a bit like an insect or something.

Anyway, the toy comes with a string to tie the wire to something, so the cat can entertain him or herself. However, it didn't seem to be a very effective attachment mechanism. Well, one Handi Clamp later, it can be mounted anywhere you want to distract a cat. (involved drilling a small hole in the handle, and some plier work). Kitty goes totally nuts over it; it's vastly entertaining to both parties.

Incidentally, I realized that most of the places I stayed at on this trip have cats: JMD's (three), Bird and Jen's (four), U5's (one), and my parents' house (one). I wonder, however, whether cats were coming up to me and sniffing me and my stuff dismissively because I had been 'marked' by other cats.