Take a four meter long plactic cord and to each end tie anything a cat would like to chase; ribbons, feathers, rattly things, crunchy things, krinckly things, or whatever else you think they'd like. Put the middle point (directly between the two ends) of the line on a small pulley and screw this pulley sideways into your wall a meter off the ground. When one cat pulls on one end, the other cat will see his/her end moving away and chase it. When this cat pulls, the first cat will chase his/her end.

Without the pulley, the cats might see that they are simply fighting each other for rights to a toy, but with the pulley, it would seem they are both pulling at two different toys from the same direction. The reason the pulley would be placed so high above the floor is to make the cats beleive the toy is also trying to fly away, which will mke them jump and exercise more by themselves.

Can be used with one cat because when that one cat pulls on one end of the string, it will see the other move as well. Can be used with more cats if off of the midpoints between the end of the string and it's halfway point (where it is strung through the pulley) are tied two more strings (one per side) each a meter long which are then strung through two more pulleys mounted on the floor and decorated as noted above. The ends of the strings would have to be wider than the space between the pulley and the wall to ensure they don't reach the pulley and slide off.
-- jellydoughnut, Mar 05 2006

Clever.
-- jellydoughnut, Mar 05 2006


So... this is nothing like the electrical cord that my dad once fashioned into a leash for his sister's cat as a sick joke? (PS: He never plugged it in, and never planned to either!)
-- ye_river_xiv, Sep 14 2006



random, halfbakery