Toys for your Cat, or Toys for you?

I love buying new toys for the cats, some are a hit and become lifelong favourites, some are treated as if I brought dog poo into the house. Price is often inversely related to the popularity of the new toy. One of my cats, Noomi,  likes catnip but a toy stuffed with dry catnip is no guarantee of success either. So when all is said and done, my opinions on a toy are irrelevant. 

Despite a box full of purchased cat toys, Noomi loves a piece of old washing line, and Lily is currently obsessed with a piece of soft rope.  Noomi does like a few toys that have been purchased;  an old knitted mouse that has been repaired many times, and some cheap mice made out of a stretchy string over a plastic body.  These seem to be preferred because of their mouth feel.  Noomi will demolish the plastic bodies, like a pitbull with a chew toy until I have to take away the tattered remains and put down a new one.

Lily is endlessly thrilled by a soft piece of rope

I could almost rewrite this post as a positive reinforcement training article as the principles are the same;  "It's not about you."  Things that look fun and exciting to me, can make no impression on the cats at all, or one may like it but the other be completely unimpressed.  When training, this is the most important lesson we can learn.  You can only every call something a reward or reinforcer if the animal thinks it is.