CatFilter: Help me figure out what this cat toy is so I can buy another.

August 26, 2011 7:28 PM

Mom bought me a totally awesome cat toy that my cat loves. Of course, I am a doofus who stepped on it while I was moving and now it's broken, and I can't figure out where to buy another. It's manufactured by Hartz, but my usual Google-Fu is failing me.

Here's a craptastic cell phone shot of what it looks like - you may be able to see the big old crack in the middle where I stepped on it and where it falls apart if even the slightest pressure is applied. In theory there's also supposed to be one more ball on a stick on it, but kitty destroyed that first one almost immediately. He LOVES this thing.

I'm usually pretty good at Googling stuff like this up, but I'm coming up with a big old bag of Fail trying to find it with the keywords I've been trying. It's definitely made by Hartz (the clear plastic bits say HARTZ all over them), but I'm not seeing anything like it on their website, so I suspect it may be an older model that's out of production.

Any help tracking this down would make both me and my cat very happy. Thank you!

posted by loudguitars to pets & animals (19 answers total)

I don't think we can proceed without a picture of said cat....
posted by la petite marie at 7:54 PM on August 26, 2011 [6 favorites]

Well, I'm coming up empty handed as well. I do, however, have a few suggestions:

1- Try getting your cat a new toy. I know it sounds pretty self-explanatory, but maybe look for toys that have similar aspects. Our cats love the little ball-in-track toys, as well at the feather-on-a-stick toys.

2- Take the toy to a pet store and see if anyone recognizes it. Who knows, you might get lucky.

3- Ask your mom where she got the original. Hopefully it wasn't a goodwill or something.

*on preview, yes, we really need to see the cat in question to fully address this quandary.
posted by ThaBombShelterSmith at 7:56 PM on August 26, 2011

For those requesting to see the cat in question: fair enough.
posted by loudguitars at 8:03 PM on August 26, 2011 [7 favorites]

This looks similar .

More kitteh pix pls. k thx bye.
posted by Ostara at 8:10 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sorry, I have no idea where to get the toy. But love your cat's "hairline"!
posted by serunding at 8:13 PM on August 26, 2011

@Ostara - Ooh, that looks close. If I can't find the actual item I have, I may get that as a replacement.

@serenuding - I call it his hat. His name is Chaplin. :)

I did ask mom - she can't remember where the hell she got it or what it was actually called.

I'll give a shot to my friendly local pet shop but I know when I checked with the Petco in my old neighborhood before I moved (I broke it like 2 days before I loaded the truck), they didn't recognize it. My new neighborhood is all super-hippie and the friendly local pet shop will probably lecture me for not giving him organic, locally sourced, artisinal cat toys.

And this is Chaplin's latest pile of shenanigans (many more pics are linked there), courtesy of the kids at Friskies, who made an HTML5 tablet app with a bunch of games for cats. It's hilarious that I'm shilling for them since he can only eat super-expensive prescription food.
posted by loudguitars at 8:17 PM on August 26, 2011

It's called the Pounce Around Cat Activity Centre. Bizarrely there are a few places that sell it in Australia, e.g. here (I can't tell where you are so maybe that would turn out to be awesome!) but it seems much harder to find it in the USA - these people used to sell it, but they don't any more.
posted by Cheese Monster at 8:20 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Found it! Hartz Pounce Around Activity Center
posted by littlesq at 8:21 PM on August 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

It looks like this is your cat toy. But I don't think you're from Australia...
posted by QueenHawkeye at 8:21 PM on August 26, 2011

And a minute too late ;P
posted by littlesq at 8:22 PM on August 26, 2011

If you're feeling really, really guilty about breaking kitty's toy, you can possibly buy a new one from Australian ebay, if you can negotiate getting it posted to you.
posted by Cheese Monster at 8:24 PM on August 26, 2011

Thanks, everyone! Yes, that's definitely it. And no, I do not live in Australia, so I'll have to see if I can find a place that ships to the US. But knowing what it's called will make such a place MUCH easier to find. Thank you all!

As thanks, here is a video of Chaplin going berserk on an animated fly in a DVD menu.
posted by loudguitars at 8:26 PM on August 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

Love the pix of Chaplin in the Headphone Holder Hat! Cats are fun!
posted by la petite marie at 8:36 PM on August 26, 2011

If you can't find any Oz store willing to ship overseas, maybe you could enlist the help of a friendly Australian Mefite to take delivery and forward it to you. Like me! I'd be happy to do it. Mefi mail me if you want.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 9:05 PM on August 26, 2011

Chaplin has a yarmulke!
posted by BlueHorse at 9:39 PM on August 26, 2011

@BlueHorse - Heh, I've never quite heard it put that way. Though I have made the joke that there are only two names you can give a cat that looks like mine does, and I'm Jewish, so he's Chaplin.
posted by loudguitars at 11:25 PM on August 26, 2011

I totally did not see the word "TOY" and thought you were a crazy horrible person.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:21 AM on August 27, 2011

I'll post one to you if I can find it locally. Your cat is AWESOME by the way.
posted by indienial at 3:13 AM on August 27, 2011

@Civil_Disobedient Ha, I'd imagine. That is a rather key part of the question. :)

Thanks to those who have offered to post it from AUS - I've got some friends who used to live in Sydney so I'm working on getting one of their friends who's still there to send it over, and I've got queries in to a couple of the sites to see if they'd be willing to ship direct. I think there will be a happy kitty here in the not too distant future.
posted by loudguitars at 11:24 AM on August 27, 2011