Hi from new member & 2 fur babies in GA!

Hi, everyone!   This is my first post and I want to say hello from GA.   Our two cats are Tacker and Sweet Pea, and they let us live here with them.  They are two years old and both are rescues.  Sweet Pea is a female tortoiseshell and quite the primadonna, and Tacker is the male and has a beautiful white tuxedo and the rest of him is black.  My husband named them both because he's so good at that.  Tacker got his name because he was attacking everything when he was a kitten, and my husband hadn't had indoor kittens before that.  He didn't realize all kittens do that!   But it fits him perfectly!

I have a question about toys for indoor cats.  Tacker loves those very small, (1" in diameter), very soft and spongy, furry balls.  It's the only kind he likes, but I can't find them on the market anymore.  I think they may have taken them off the market due to a choking hazard, but any help towards finding them again would be great.  He seems to have lost/hidden all the ones he had, but he keeps looking for them and it's driving me crazy!  Also, I need to find some toys that will keep him occupied while I'm working - he gets bored so easily, and since he's indoors all the time he needs exercise!

I'll look forward to getting to know all of you here!  Thanks!  tnreni

Hi @tnreni   and welcome to the site 

Your kitties sound lovely, l'll look forward to more updates and kitty pictures.

As to the toy balls - around here the great cat-toy vortex is under the stove. Every time l move it out to clean l find all kinds of things that were batted under there.

Do you have a picture of these balls.. so we can keep an eye out for them. I am not exactly sure what you are describing (but I am not overly bright).

Love their names, especially Tacker!

Welcome, @tnreni.  I too live in Georgia.  I can't help you find the little spongy balls, but I do highly recommend daily play sessions with DaBird (available at Petco) and of course the laser light (Walmart has those for $3.97, shaped like mice).  They will not occupy Tacker while you are at work, but they will give him good daily exercise.  Fifteen minutes with either one usually has my young cats panting and lying on the floor, and they get at least two sessions a day.  I also have a floor to ceiling large Armarkat cat tree in a corner next to a window, and a bird feeder right outside the window.  That provides hours of entertainment.. They are amazingly inexpensive on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=armarkat+cat+trees&tag=&tag=thecatsite

My younger ones like the circular cat scratcher that sits on the floor and has a ball that runs around the outside - Bergen Cat Scratcher

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Bergan-Pet-Products-Turbo-Linerboard-Cat-Scratcher-Cats-Cats/9906392

And for some reason they all just LOVE the S-shaped cat scratcher that sits on the floor.  They sit on it, curl up in it, wrestle with it etc.  This is also available at Walmart.

  Welcome to TCS, Tnreni & furkids!  I'm not sure what the spongy, furry balls that you are describing, but a couple of my cats LOVED the "puff balls (kinda like a cotton ball)" from my daughter's handicraft kit, so I bought some of the large, 1&1/2" and 2" size.  Also, they all enjoy the "realistic squeak mice" from KMart., so much that I have purchased some for my feral cats, who also love playing with them, even though they have ample opportunity to catch the real thing.  If you find anything else that Tracker recommends, please pass the good word - new toys & ideas are always very welcome!!

Another hello from a fellow Georgian! Welcome to TCS!