I had what I called a cat rod..bit of willow twig ..flexible..2 foot long or thereabouts..3 foot of fishing line attached, and a bit of kangaroo..well, ok wallaby tail hide..dried, attached to the other end of said fishing line..so that the bristles were all running towards me. They all point down onna rootail uc.. So, dragged/jiggled across carpet, it digs in..hops and jumps and looks thoroughly enticing to any black kitty worth his salt. Periodically, this pretend mouse gets caught..but its a tough little mouse eh..well and truly dried. tough as the hobs of hell..not worth chewing on at all. I also found that you get a big enough feather, tie it in the right spot, and it’d sail through the air..in a big arc..even black megs jumped after it eh. Black megs wouldn’t want to let the pretend mouse go..he reckoned he’d well and truly earned it. So I invented a new game. Dragged said cat..gr gr grring..to the fridge by means of the rod attached to fishing line attached to pretend mouse attached to one black megs..and tied the butt end of the rod to the door handle with a dozen or so elakky bands. Rod points straight up…cat puts on the strain..goes backwards. Rod starts to come down to the horizontal. Black megs gains another inch..and thats it. Rod is pointing straight at cat, and..stalemate. One more tug, mouse escapes..and it dangles invitingly I thought..but no, our cat hero of the hour has had enough.