Cats aren't the only ones who like to play.
The American Veterinary Medical Association estimated that more than 32 percent of American households had cats in 2007, with those households averaging 2.2 cats each, for a total of more than 81 million. In other words, if you don't have a cat, odds are your neighbors do. If you have kids, the furry creatures no doubt fascinate them. If you want to let them have some fun with cats, you can do so online, at home and even in the car.
Online
Online cat games for kids range from the sweet to the strange. Among the many games at the Infinite Cat Project website, your child can "Save the Kitties" by scooping them into a wheelbarrow and ushering them to safety, "Stack the Cats" by placing them one on top of the next in "Tetris" style, or have a kitty and puppy work together to find some treats as "Party Pals." The I-Love-Cats website offers more than 2,000 games from "Cat Bowling" and "Cat Baseball" to several "Cat Castle" games, in which a kitty makes its way through a castle to find the boss, similar to the "Mario Brothers" games.
At Home
Try several in-person cat games at home. For "Catwalk," you'll need to lay a piece of bubble wrap on the floor---large enough for the kids to crawl on. Have the kids line up and take turns trying to cross the bubble wrap on "little cat feet"---all fours---trying not to pop any of the bubbles. The winning kitty is the one who pops the fewest.
For "Cat and Mouse," have the kids sit in a circle. Blow up two balloons of two different colors and hand the first one to one of the kids. This balloon is "the mouse." Have the kids start passing the mouse around in a circle. Once it's halfway around, hand the first child the other balloon, "the cat," and have her begin passing it in the same direction as the mouse. The kids have to try to pass the mouse before the cat reaches them. If the cat and mouse show up at the same place, the player holding them is out, and the game continues.
In The Car
Cats typically don't like cars the way dogs do, but that doesn't mean you can't have some figurative kitties with you. Have one child think of a famous cat for everyone else in the car, such as the Cheshire Cat, the Cat in the Hat and Morris, of 9 Lives fame. Then, taking turns, everyone asks questions that can only be answered "yes" or "no," trying to identify which cat they are. For example, the first child might ask, "Am I a cartoon?" The next player might ask, "Am I yellow?" and so on. The first player to correctly identify his cat gets to start the next game.
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