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Cat Pinball
No animals were harmed in the making of this idea. | |
If you've ever had cats you will know that they sometimes startle and run madly around the house for a while.
This usually results in many turns with loss of traction and collisions with walls, furniture, expensive vases, etc., especially if you have polished timber floors.
Cat Pinball® accessories
may be mounted at those points most likely to receive a knock from a cornering cat. They absorb the impact and apply a gentle nudge to the crazed moggy, straightening its path to the next dangerous corner.
[link]
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Ooh yeah! One of them did a 720 deg spin along the kitchen floor this morning, careening off the refrigerator. My inspiration. |
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I really don't think the normal laws of physics apply to cats at all. croissant from a 4 cats mad HBer. |
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You'd need to be imaginative with the mounting positions. My two junior cats often chase each other into the room, go twice round the walls and out again without ever touching the floor (what a colleague calls 'doing the wall of death'). |
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Perhaps I should consult Vernon and Abhi on the physics I'll need to know to actually design these little devices. What's the bet I'm going to need some buttered toast? |
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Can the pinball accessories by moving targets? My two
cats aim for my legs (or stunned visitors) when in 'play'
mode. |
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As long as there are classic pinball sounds when the kitties impinge . . . |
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Buttered Toast Side Bet at 2:1 Odds |
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[arora], I had the sound effects in mind when I posted, especially that weird whhrrooooOOP! noise you get occasionally. |
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Shit, it makes me soooo jealous. Definitely a croissant. I am currently zero cats mad, aiming to become 2 cats mad soon. I recall the sound of squeeking soles of the cats when they slip on the floor. |
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Why not add a 3-D component to it? I used to have a tree trunk in my room. When the cats (I had 4!) decided to impersonate brownian movement, they added the trunk in their play. Big fun. |
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I've often wondered how many revs the wild scrabbling on the floor as they try to get up to speed would equate to if they were doing "circle work". |
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This is lovely. Yes indeed to the pinball sounds, and I'd like some flashing lights as well, and perhaps scorekeeping. Particularly hard impacts would light a TILT sign. |
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Mr UnaBubba, we salute you. |
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Damn you Una! I have a head full of pinball sounds now!
Great idea, I can just imagine sitting quietly, reading or watching tv when PING PING PING, BOING, WHROOOOOOP, DING DING DING! and back out the door goes Velcro. Look up from book or tv to note new high score. |
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Would the addition of a pen-laser be cheating? |
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confession time: a few years ago, in a rental house with wood floors, I used furniture polish to get a really slick surface on one part of the floor. That part happened to be right where the cats would normally do a high-speed cornering maneuver.
I'd put a cushion on the wall to prevent the cats from getting hurt. The first one to do the high-speed bit through there hit the cushion rather hard. The second one was about the same. There's something indescribable about the look on a cat's face after such an episode.
Anyway, the third cat did the corner quite fast. She started to slide, but didn't hit the cushion on the wall at all. No. She had dug her claws in at the first bit of the slide, and stopped herself short. Made some really spectacular groooves in the wood floor.
I made sure to get a rug over the spot before the landlord showed up. |
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spekkie: just a word of caution, if you don't fancy pinball
sound 24 hours a day, steer clear of Mother and Son
relationships, I fell soft when my cat had kittens and
decided to keep one of her offspring. I thought I was
doing her a favour, not parting with her baby boy, but
believe me, the pinball would never stop. |
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Rayf, don't pen lasers just make them completely nuts? I'm not sure how to incorporate it. Maybe we need a disco chandelier (mirror ball) and a number of pen lasers trained on it? |
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Pen lasers make them nuts for about 20 minutes and then they get bored of them. It takes several weeks before they show interest in the bright red dot again (of course, aren't cats colorblind, or is that dogs?) |
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I suspect that would be cruelty to cats. I'd rather not. |
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I'm not sure about pen lasers Bris. I've never teased my cats with one, so I don't know how they would react. I have seen a dog almost turn itself inside out over one, though. |
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cats need to be put in a garden when they are hyper. It's less dangerous for every one/thing. |
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How do you propose doing that? A butterfly net perhaps? |
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By the way, my cats are not allowed outside.
1. They consume the wildlife. It is my responsibilty as a cat owner not to contribute to that unnecessary impact on the environment.
2. I lost a very dear feline friend several years ago to dogs. The cats I have are perfectly happy with their lot. They have no need to go outside. |
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Install a video camera so you can record the bits you miss while you are away from home. |
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I like this, but it would be more fun with dogs. My hound
"chaos" (yes, that was her name) used to do this number
around the kitchen table when the tea pot whistled. She
had enough sense not to run in the kitchen most of the
time... but man oh man did she hate that tea pot. Poor
old mutt... should have thought to put in the padding ... |
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<offtopic> My dad has a Calico that in one litter, had one skittish dark short-haired tabby, one long-haired golden-colord lap-lover, one hyperactive six-toed cat named 'Thumbs' that will follow the laser all day long if you let it, and one that we called 'Bruiser' cause he got his head stuck in a bad part of the rocker-recliner and is a little stupid now. He'll sit there and stare at nothing in particular for a half-hour or longer. Amazing the variety in personalities from that one litter. And here I had always thought cats were basically all the same. |
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Well, they're all grey in the dark... |
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bit like us really, eh? I am the one who waits for the door to open all day because its raining and then when it does, I am frightened of the sudden activity and run away - oh buggar! |
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I tought my cat to fetch marbles, it lost the whole set of
my solitaire game, if it was carrying a marble and dropped
it in the process of hitting one of the accessories it
would loose a point. If the cat hit all targets - returned
with marble in mouth, it might score bonus points. |
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When I saw the title, I had this glorious vision of a wooden deck about the size of a tennis court, inclined at an angle, and well greased; cats would be dropped from the top and bounce off various obstacles on the way down, before being propelled back up by a pair of huge compressed-air actuated flippers. |
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A machine like that would eat all my change in a matter of minutes .... |
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The cat I am living with at the moment has a definite
resemblance to a ball, I think this could work. |
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A couple of dark nutlets of catnip should speed things up a bit |
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I note this one has appeared on a few odd websites. |
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Bagsy design the sound fx: |
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I often try to explain the HB to people, describing this idea. Sometimes they even display a fleeting glimmer of comprehension. |
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they should have a scoring system - over
100 and kitty gets extra snacks |
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One of my cats has gone missing. Very sad... she's 12 years old and getting a little forgetful. Missing a week now. |
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