this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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My cat will play fetch for as long as I throw her little mouse toy. She'll even let me throw it from bed and she'll bring it right back up for me to throw again.

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[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 65 points 6 days ago

Another one!

[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago (2 children)

One of mine does! His name is Porkchop and he will only fetch and return plastic water bottle caps.

[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mine will only fetch the mice, she once brought us a real mouse in the middle of the night.

[–] jaennaet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago

"Look, I fetched!"

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[–] shish_mish@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago

My cat does

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Mine did as a kitten. He’d even bring the toy back to throw again!

At some point he stopped bringing the toy back so now we don’t play fetch. We play throw once and stare.

[–] limelight79@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

One of ours did that too, she also grew out of it.

Our dog doesn't even play fetch. :(

[–] tyler@programming.dev 5 points 6 days ago

Same for ours, but we think it’s cause she learned we’d go get it even if she didn’t.

[–] aichan@piefed.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago

I've seen other comments pointing their cats only doing it when kittens, but I am happy to report that my 3 and a half year old boy does still play it. I throw aluminium foil balls and he loves playing soccer with them and giving them back to me so I can throw them again

[–] Tinks@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

So cute! My Maine Coon played fetch too. He preferred the shiny little balls of tinsel, but would also play with toy mice. I never taught him, he just brought me a toy one day and stood on my chest so I threw it to get him off me (he was big) and he brought it back. After a few times doing this I realized I was playing fetch with him and we did it his whole life 😊

[–] celeste@kbin.earth 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I have had a couple cats who do this! It's adorable. It does mean I've woken up with cat toys in my bed, though.

[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Gotta get that 3am fetch session in!

[–] seathru@quokk.au 10 points 6 days ago

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Mo fetches (and brings up random) sticks like a dog.

[–] HurricaneLiz@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

Apparently ppl here hate reddit, but for those who don't, r/catscarryingstuffies has kitties that play fetch fairly often. So, yes, it happens, but I don't think it's too common

[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My handsome boy has a toy fish he brings to me. We'll, he brings it wherever he sleeps and sometimes that is on my legs. Sometimes he just brings it to me. He really likes that fish.

He will play fetch with those plastic springs. Those disappeared for a while. I had to do some work behind my fridge yesterday and found over 15 of them hiding under there.

[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

When we moved out of my house I found my missing air pod under the oven where my little lady had lost it. 😂

[–] quediuspayu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 6 days ago

All the cats I had did at some point when they were young. It never lasted though, some only played fetch once.

[–] IngressCloaked@piefed.ca 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

My youngest cat did when she was little... but has basically stopped a couple years ago. I think it's because she's bigger and I can't throw the crinkle balls far enough. lol I got a gun that shoots little felt balls, but she doesn't like those balls (but my oldest cat loves to walk around with one of those balls in her mouth while singing us an opera).

[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Ha! I'm thinking of 3D printing a mouse launcher so I can save my shoulder from huckin the mouse

[–] Creativity@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

Please share if you do

[–] IngressCloaked@piefed.ca 1 points 6 days ago

That sounds awesome!!

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

I had a cat that played fetch. When he was young fellow, he'd fetch and bring the toy back to me. Eventually he'd only bring the toy most of the way back, and I had to cover the remaining distance. Then he'd bring the toy back some of the way back, and it eventually turned into him running to where the toy ended up, sitting down next to it, and looking at me like "Okay, I found where you tossed the toy, now come over and get it so we can do this again". He still loved to play, but it seemed he kind of outgrew the fetch thing.

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 5 points 6 days ago

Mine will chase after something if i throw it but then she expects me to come pick it up and throw it the other direction haha.

[–] MissJinx@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Mine loves paying fetch, but she doesn't really fetch, she just runs after it and gives it some slaps, than looks at me and meows until I get it and throw it again

[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

Not fetch but he does have a favorite plushie toy that he takes with him wherever he goes. So adorable.

[–] Lexam@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Four of my seven will bring me a ball to play fetch.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Note: if you cat loves to play catch that is awesome but also many cats if anything love the opposite of catch even more.

A strong predator drive in cats is to want to pick up and drag off a new kill. You can bring this into play by letting your cat drag off their cat toy when they get it.

Don't play tug of war with your cat, they aren't like dogs they don't generally get into that. They want to pounce, kill and triumphantly drag their prey off up a tree or into a hideout or something. Integrate that last beat into your play with your cat and they will have a lot more fun!

Even better, reward your cat with praise when they stalk off with the cat toy they just pounced on, give them a quick scratch or back rub as they walk away with a proud lion gate and then success flop. This will make it WAYYY easier to rescue... or cleanup an actual animal your cat has gotten because they won't connect you with being near them after a successful "kill" as frustrating, stressful or unnatural.

If you do it enough with an indoor cat they will begin to associate a successful hunt with you hanging around, and that makes handling cats when they go into hunt mode way easier.

TL;DR praise your cat for hiding the body they will love you more for it and let you cleanup murder scenes easier because of it.

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Only 2 of them did it their whole lives… Ginger now considers it servitude, but would literally fetch milk rings or mice until both my girlfriend and I got worn out… two and a half hours IIRC. She was so fast, like 30-40 mice a minute.

[–] Jollyllama@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I think the longest we've played fetch was may 30-40 minutes before I gave up. I'll need to try for a marathon, a fetch-a-thon

[–] sramder@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I mean that was two (humans) trading off until we both collapsed with arms limp like overcooked pasta. I’m pretty sure Ginger would have gone all day… she’s 13 now and mostly just stares judgmentally at me ;-)

[–] BurntWits@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago

My wife trained one of our cats to play fetch just a few days ago! She absolutely loves it now (the cat, not my wife. Though my wife does still have fun with it).

[–] qupada@fedia.io 3 points 6 days ago

My boy did, when he was between about 6 months and a year old.

https://imgur.com/a/KmNbkBH

These pipe cleaners were his favourite.

[–] djmikeale@feddit.dk 3 points 6 days ago

Yep mine too!!

[–] fitjazz@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 5 days ago

My grey, Starbuck, is my 4th cat that loves to play fetch. Every night he picks which toy he wants to play with and just before bed he brings it to us to throw.

[–] Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

I know of two belonging to two separate friends that would fetch.

Wagler was particularly good at it and would fetch just about everything, bring it right to you, and bite you for your troubles. This was 25 years ago and I haven't kept in touch. I suspect Wagler is no longer with us.

Honey demands wadded up paper balls to fetch and adorably half-asses it getting either distracted and playing with one instead, or just wandering off and only remembering later that he was doing it.

[–] homura1650@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I have 3 cats, and one of them plays fetch. Although he typically gets bored after a dozen throws or so.

[–] Buffy@libretechni.ca 1 points 5 days ago

Yes! But only with those little plastic springs. I also trained him to get on my shoulders, but he's too clumsy so I stopped. But he never did. So now I have to watch my back around elevated surfaces or else I risk a cat flying at me from my blind spot.

[–] jade52@lemmy.ca 1 points 5 days ago

Yes! And she's orange, too.

We're on our third cat that we've taught to fetch! Now....do they always bring it back in arms reach. No. But most of the time we'll get either more throws than our arm will tolerate or 3 throws and then indifference.

[–] Griffus@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 days ago

My indoor Devon Rex starts nagging me if we haven't played for a few days or if he suddenly gets in the mood for it. He adores playing for several minutes at a time, until he gets annoyed because he thinks I should know to play with more than one toy at a time. Or that we played yesterday and that I'm stupid for suggesting playing something without his asking for it.

He might have gotten a bit spoiled at some point, I thing.

[–] harambe69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

Mine used to, as a kitten, but not anymore.

[–] brognak@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

Mine used to play fetch with qtip sticks. I would pull the cotton off the ends and it was easily her favorite toy/games for years before she got fat and old lol

[–] FrankieEggs@piefed.ca 2 points 6 days ago

My void does, he has little sushi toys he likes to play fetch with and he always brings them back :)

[–] dkppunk@piefed.social 2 points 6 days ago

I used to have a 2 cats who did and both of those girls looked just like your cat

[–] buttmasterflex@piefed.social 2 points 6 days ago

One cat likes to bat around a stuffed salmon and flip it up in the air to chase after. The other bats a ball around and plays fetch with herself, no human interaction desired.

[–] Romkslrqusz@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago

Yes - especially with chopsticks

[–] maniclucky@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Our orange will play fetch with qtips. But he drops it increasingly far away when he brings it back...

[–] Willdrick@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Mine does this too! He'd bring the toy right to my feet the first few times, then it'll drop it increasingly further away from me

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