Self Recharging Chase Toys?
So, like all cats, my little booger loves to chase things. But she also enjoys just sitting on a chair and watching things run around. Whether that is one of her ball toys, a feathery thing on a string, or the robot vacuum. And I love to play with her and do so regularly, but there are definitely a LOT of times where she doesn't want to chase so much as watch. And... I only have so much patience for essentially standing up and dancing in front of my cat while she sits and watches me.
And while I can just turn on one of her ball toys and let that roll and bounce around, she has a tendency to hide them after they run out of power which adds another step before I can plug a USB cable back in so she can play with it again tomorrow.
And while it is never a bad idea to do a run of the vacuum but I would rather her not view that as her toy considering she already bullies it in its dock. But that did get me thinking: The tech that said vacuums use to navigate around the floor and then return to its charging dock is pretty trivial these days.
So is anyone aware of any cat toys like this? Charges in a dock on the ground until you turn it on, zooms around the floor, and then returns to its charging dock after a while? Half tempted to go shop for a few sensors and get my esp32 on but that is going to be a time sink and I'll need to do a lot of hardening before letting her loose on the poor robot.
Thanks
As for "just get another cat": Considering how her play dates go, that is going to be a very time consuming effort with a high likelihood of needing to "audition" multiple cats to see who she vibes with and who puts up with her nonsense. That is not an option at this time.
Posted Aug 3, 2026, 1:59 PM UTC