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Owners with indoor-only cats know how hard it is, after a few years since they’ve gotten the cat, to keep their cat entertained in such a limited space.
The cat has already explored all there is in the apartment, gone through all its toys and probably the toys have all become too boring for it.
When they don’t sleep cats really need stimulants to give out their energy. It is crucial to having a healthy, satisfied cat in your home.
I have had an indoor cat for 3 years now and right now there are just a handful of toys (out of a whole box) that she can still play with, but even with them the play lasts only for 5-10 minutes.
So it is very sad to see her trying to find something interesting, failing and finally just sitting in one corner and staring at me.
Once in a Facebook group someone asked why sometimes a cat just sits and stares at you and I believe in almost all cases the cat is simply in a stupor of boredom (if you know it is fed and physically healthy).
So how do you solve this? Well, you will have to get creative – unless you have tons of money to keep spending on toys for your cat. I’m thinking a robotic cat toy is probably a good idea but you can also find some really good inexpensive toys that your cat will love.
For example, a helium balloon toy for cat turned out to be a really great and fun cat toy!
Let me tell you how I discovered this jewel:
It happened that one day I was coming back from work and I always take the stairs to my 6th floor (our elevator is a horror story) and on the first floor there was a helium balloon floating on the ceiling. It was an abandoned celebration balloon that nobody wanted anymore and on an impulse, I took it with me.
It was really pretty, shiny and with nice stars on it. I never thought my cat would be amazed by it!
It was such a strange object to her, just floating on its own and it really got her attention. At first, she just followed it around, usually on the highest spot she could climb to be closer to it.
But then spontaneously I decided to tie some toy to this helium balloon and it really turned out to be a great helium balloon cat toy! I was so surprised by this unexpected toy that held my cat’s interests for more than a few minutes.
Now I am SO sorry I didn’t make a video of this event but it all happened so accidentally 🙂
Let me show you this moment of how my cat looks at this “thing”:

And it was sooo funny to watch her, I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of both of them – this helium balloon and my cat. I just kept giggling all by myself and I love these moments so much.
Even after 2 weeks of having this floating balloon it still makes me laugh when I see my cat around it. Such a great source of joy!
When attaching something at the end of the balloon you have to watch for the weight to be just right: not too heavy so that it will pin the balloon to the ground and not too light so that it will fly off to the ceiling.
I have seen people attach a piece of paper but it was too light for my balloon and a cat ball was too heavy. So, in the end, these little bells I bought for Christmas turned out to be just perfect:

You can see she is naturally interested for these cute bells even before I attached one to the balloon. So it’s a double toy for my cat
The bell will ring, the balloon will drag it on the floor, the cat will run after them and what you get is a DIY automated cat toy!

And the fun didn’t stop there!
Since I live in a very polluted city, one weekend I turned on my air purifier and the balloon happened to be near. It started going up and down from the air movement and that was simply amazing to my cat. I also have a mirror next to the air purifier – can you imagine the confusion of my Puffy? It was hilarious!
Check them out:

I warmly recommend you make your cat such an entertaining toy – it will give you all a great time!
And don’t forget to record it – you will love watching it and I bet it will make you laugh once again 🙂