| While there are numerous new trends in dog toys (at | | | | picky about their litter. |
| least going by what I saw at the Global Pet Expo), | | | | Electronic toys are also becoming more popular. Laser |
| the cat world is still sorely lacking in novelty. The | | | | toys (where cats go absolutely nuts chasing a red |
| vast, vast majority of what I saw at Global (and this | | | | dot) have been around for sometime, but there are |
| hasn't changed much over the past few years) for | | | | definitely some marked improvements. Several |
| cats fell into one of three categories: toss and bat | | | | companies for example have laser pointers where |
| toys (usually variations on toss-able fake mice), | | | | the base is large enough to sit on a counter and all |
| inexpensive wand toys (the kind that look like your | | | | you have to is flip a switch. The laser randomly |
| child won them at an arcade - you know, where you | | | | shines around the floor and wall, and turns itself off |
| earn tickets and can redeem them for cheap toys?), | | | | after a set amount of time. This is a wonderful |
| and assorted cat furniture (I happen to LIKE cat | | | | concept for people who have cats who like to play |
| furniture, but these are sorely lacking in the elegance | | | | at odd hours (or who need to distract cats who |
| that it always seems to me that cat furniture needs | | | | insist on sitting on their keyboard every time they sit |
| to possess). | | | | down to write a blog posting). Human powered and |
| All that being said, there were several new "themes" | | | | cat powered toys are not going anywhere |
| that I saw emerge at this year's show (I use the | | | | fortunately. Interactive play promotes bonding |
| word "theme" instead of "trend" deliberately because | | | | between cat and human, and is also a lot of fun. |
| I think these concepts are still relatively new, and I | | | | However, it's nice to have options! |
| cannot say with certainty that they will catch on - | | | | 2) Quality Cat Furniture - Yes I know I ranted at the |
| although I hope for cats' sake they do!) | | | | beginning of this post about the lack of quality cat |
| 1) Electronics - The newest (and in many cases the | | | | furniture. Apparently, a few smaller pet product |
| most interesting) new cat products were not human | | | | vendors feel the same way I do. Although we saw |
| powered, but battery powered. I believe, for | | | | our share of cheap cat furniture, there were some |
| example, that self-cleaning litter boxes are here to | | | | really exquisite ones at the show. From cat trees to |
| stay. These litter boxes automatically sweep the | | | | scratching posts, more smaller suppliers are working |
| litter every time a cat exits, moving the waste into | | | | on offering cat trees, beds and scratching posts that |
| an isolated container until the human comes along and | | | | are appealing to the cat and extremely pleasing to |
| empties it. There are some real benefits to these | | | | the human eye. |
| litter boxes, especially for multi-cat households. The | | | | What would you like to see different or new in the |
| downside is that there is usually only one type of | | | | world of cat toys? |
| litter that will work with each box, and cats can be | | | | |