# My Maine **** Cat plays "fetch"!!????



## scamper (Apr 2, 2004)

We have a Maine **** cat (not a thorough bred) which has learned to play with a small super bouncy ball. We started bouncing it down the hall and he will pounce 3-4 feet in the air chasing it.

What's really interesting is that he will will actually retreive the ball and walk back to me, but when I'm in the other room he will take the ball in his mouth walk up the stairs and "bat" it down the stairs, chase it, and bring it back in it's mouth up the stairs, bat it down the stairs again over and over!!!

I've never had a cat do this before, is this characteristic of Maine **** cats???? I just find it fascinating.....


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## DesnBaby (Apr 18, 2004)

Yeah, I think so :? . I read it somewhere.


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## DylansMummy (May 23, 2004)

yup - Dylan does it with his toy mice...


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## lolakitty23 (Aug 17, 2004)

Skeeter's done this since the day we brought him home. Apparently it's a game that quite a few cats enjoy playing. Some of them (like our babies) pick it up on their own, but there are also handbooks on how to teach tricks such as this to your cat. It's so much fun to play it with Skeeter! Except now, our new kitten doesn't know how to play, so I feel like he feels he's being left out.  Maybe we can teach him his own game. :?: But, since Skeeter's a grey tabby, and from other accounts of cat parents on the forum, it doesn't seem that "fetch" is limited to one specific breed (or non-breed) of cat. Have fun!!


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## Hippyhart (Jul 4, 2004)

Nico (my black dsh) also plays fetch with this toy we call "dog head". It is the last remaining part of a stuffed toy he loved a little too much...anyway, I throw it down the stairs, and he bolts after it, then brings it back to the top so I can throw it back down. It's really fun...and it tires him out pretty quickly!


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## violina23 (Jun 28, 2004)

Kiera plays fetch! She brings those plastic milk-carton rings up onto the bed/couch where I am residing, drops them in front of me, then I take it and toss it accross the room as far as I can: Kiera runs like MAD to get it, picks it up in her mouth, trots back over to where I am, and drops it right in front of me again, giving me those big kitty-eyes! The process will repeat until one of us (usually me..) gets tired of it 


*edit* to point out, Kiera is not a maine ****... she is a brown/grey tabby


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## lolakitty23 (Aug 17, 2004)

violina23 said:


> Kiera plays fetch! She brings those plastic milk-carton rings up onto the bed/couch where I am residing, drops them in front of me, then I take it and toss it accross the room as far as I can: Kiera runs like MAD to get it, picks it up in her mouth, trots back over to where I am, and drops it right in front of me again, giving me those big kitty-eyes! The process will repeat until one of us (usually me..) gets tired of it
> 
> 
> *edit* to point out, Kiera is not a maine ****... she is a brown/grey tabby


Milk rings are Skeeter's favorite toy, too. All of the other toys in the house are free game, but if Binx comes near one of the many milk rings we have all over, Skeeter gets protective. "MINE!"  For a while, he was keeping a good collection of about 10 of them by his food bowl. Now he's hidden most of them and only brings them to us when he wants to play fetch (Usually when I'm trying to do something else!). :lol:


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## stephanie0122 (Oct 13, 2004)

I have heard and have seen that maine-**** cats are really more like dogs than cats. It is common for them to play fetch and things like your dog will do. They are even one of the easiest breeds of cats to train.


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## reprot (Nov 11, 2004)

Two of my cats go nuts over the mice with the beady/shaky eyes. I'll thow the mouse down the steps and they make wheelies trying to get it fist. Only Big Tommy my Ragdoll will actually bring it back. I'm not sure which is having more fun


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## AmberD (Dec 29, 2003)

Spaz, my plain, brown tiger DSH started playing fetch all by herself when she was little. She likes the fuzzy glitter balls you can get in the craft section of about any store. 

Another of my cats, an orange/white DSH named CryBaby, is always trying to learn new things. So after watching Spaz play fetch enough times, he started trying to do it too. He prefers using the toy mice that rattle, and he's not as reliable in the "fetching" part as Spaz, but he brings them back sometimes.


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## Gudewife (Jun 27, 2004)

Assumpta, as Maine ****-ish as she can be, refuses to fetch. She just has this attitude of "Well, YOU threw it away, so you must not want it that much." A lot of MC's, though, seem to really like interactive play and keeping the humans involved and amused. :wink: 

(and Assumpta would like me to note here that she is <ahem> in NO way dog-like! :lol: She has indicated this by a very dismissive shake of her back paw in my general direction and a smug air of feline superiority :roll: )


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## Padunk (Oct 20, 2003)

I don't think fetching or acting "dog-like" is a characteristic of any breed. My siamese (that's most likely a mix) and my calico both fetch, follow me around, and in general act very dog-like; as do a lot of cats that I "know". All of them regular domestic short hairs.

I have a feeling that it's something that breeders say when talking up their particular breed.


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## kana (Apr 23, 2004)

I just taught my Abyssinian to fetch!!! It is so much fun!


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