Fun for Fluffy Feline

Check out these FIVE simple games you can play with your cat to keep her amused and active all day!

Pet parents often complain about their cats being lazy and inactive. By nature, cats are extremely playful and curious. They love exploring, hunting for things and chasing down moving objects. But the natural hunting instinct and playful spirit of the domestic cats often get stifled as they spend far too much time indoors. As a pet parent, you can help your cat come out of her sluggishness by constantly engaging her in games and fun activities. This will also help strengthen your bond with your feline companion.

Here are FIVE fun games that you can play with your cat to keep her physically and mentally fit and agile.

1. Chase the ball: You don’t need expensive toys to entertain your cat. A simple ping pong ball would do the trick. Just bounce a ping pong ball on the floor and watch your cat all excited, hopping along with it, trying to grab the ball. You could even roll the ball on the floor, and let your kitty chase it around the house. Ping pong balls are safe toys and being lightweight, they won’t hurt your cat, even if she gets hit by them.

2. Catch it if you can: While a rolling ball mimics the movement of mice, a wand toy mimics a fluttering bird, thereby capturing your cat’s attention. Wand toys are simple to make. Just take a piece of stick and attach a bright, colourful cloth or ribbon to its end. Wave the wand, move it in circular motions, and watch you kitty twist and turn, to get hold of it. Don’t forget to reward your kitty with treats, if she grabs the wand, and wins the game.

3. Follow the flash: Nothing can pique a cat’s curiosity more than a flickering, racing beam of light. Get a flashlight or a laser light and start moving it across the floor and up and down the wall. Move it in quick, irregular motions, and watch your cat pounce on the shimmering light, trying to grab it with her paws, and performing other funny acts, thinking it’s a firefly or some other insect.

4. Wrestling with blanket: Cats love rolling on the bed and hiding under the blanket. The next time you find your kitty lying lazily on the bed, grab a blanket and put your hand underneath. Then, move your fingers up and down and across the blanket. Your cat will instantly jump out of her torpidity, to catch your fingers, and be her usual animated self once again.

5. Bag of fun: That paper bag from the grocery store could be an interesting toy for your cat. Place an empty paper grocery bag in the middle of the room, or where your cat can see it. When your kitty jumps inside the bag, gently poke her from the sides, and move your fingers along the bag to amuse her, while she is busy exploring the bag.

Toy facts

• Like kids, your cat too can become bored with toys. You can keep a couple of toys at hand and give her a few to play with. When she is bored with them, stack them way and take out the rest. Likewise, change them with the earlier ones when she is through with the new ones.


• Include a variety of games in her playtime, and observe how she responds to each of these.


• If she loves a particular game or enjoys wrestling and snuggling with a particular toy, include that more often in her play.


• Make sure the toy you give her is safe.

Feline divinity at Hyderabad dargah

Cats have more reasons to be popular than just as pets around our households. Dargah-E-Shareef Hazarath Sayed Suleiman Baba in Hyderabad is a place where devotees offer them milk. Let’s see why!

As though they have been invited, a clowder of cats gathers every Thursday at Dargah-E-Shareef Hazarath Sayed Suleiman Baba in Hyderabad to have a kind of holy feast of milk. Devotees visiting this 600-year-old dargah, located at Suleiman Nagar, offer milk to the cats when their wishes are fulfilled. But many devotees simply feed the feline troupe for their unconditional love of cats.

Unique clowder…

Regular visitors to Dargah-E-Shareef Hazarath Sayed Suleiman Baba are familiar with the feline troupe residing at this serene holy place. They even give them names in accordance with their features or coat colour patterns. Some popular names like Safedi (because the kitty has snow white fur) and Cheetenwali (as per the sprayed black dots all over the body) are common buddies among the feline crowd.

Baba’s care…

It is believed that the generations of cats living in this dargah are the offspring of the ones groomed and cared by Syed Suleiman Baba who lived around six centuries ago. The baba having a miraculous healing power loved cats. Even today many childless women visiting Dargah-E-Shareef Hazarath Sayed Suleiman Baba pray for babies and prosperity. And the people living in Hyderabad and its surrounding areas believe that the holiness dargah can drive evil forces away.

Historical legend…

The childless women visiting the dargah believe that their offers to the feline troupe will in return bless them with the animal’s fertility and devoted motherhood. The women also trust the fact that cats are protector of home as they chase away pests that destroy foods. A historical tale mentions Prophet Mohammed’s love for his cat named Muezza for whom the prophet once cut off the sleeve of his robe where the cat was sleeping because he didn’t want to disturb the pet when he had to move out to attend a prayer.

Fantastic five feline fun facts

We all know our kitties are amazing... but here are some facts which would amuse one and all...

• Lion sneezed out the cat: If a Hebrew legend is to be believed, rats were menace and Noah prayed to the God to protect food from rats. The God answered his wish, made the lion sneeze and out popped the cat – the mouser.


• The sleepy heads: We all know our kitties love to sleep but have you ever wondered they sleep almost two-thirds of the day, which means if your cat is nine years old, she has been awake for just three years of her life. Now, that’s another thing that the growth hormones of kittens are released only during sleeping. So next time your mommy calls you a sleepy head, you know who the sleepy head is.


• Cats always get down from a tree backward: Have you ever noticed; whenever a cat climbs down a tree, she climbs backward. It is because all cat’s paws point in one direction, so she has to get down backward.


• World’s rarest coffee comes from cat’s stomach: Amazing but true, Kopi Luwak, the world’s rarest coffee from Indonesia comes from a wildcat known as Luwak stomach. The cat eats the coffee barriers and coffee beans inside through her stomach, which are then harvested from her stool and then cleaned and roasted.


• We are neat and cleanest: Kitties love to groom themselves all the time. But the fact is that cats spend nearly one-thirds of their waking hours cleaning themselves.