Posting in case this helps someone else. This Leaps and Bounds cherry toy was the very first toy I bought for her as a kitten, and she must have imprinted on it, as six years later it is still the ONLY toy she will play with.
They're rather fragile, easy to crush if stepped on, and fall apart after a few months of regular play. Knowing how much she loved them I would grab spares whenever I could, but a few years ago they went out of stock and didn't come back.
Every time I brought out a fresh cherry from the dwindling stash she would get SO excited, so I searched high and low, desperate to find more. If you read the reviews on Petco, there's other people with cats who've fixated on these cherries, and I found similar threads on Reddit.
It's been years, but I still search semi-regularly, and imagine my joy when I realized they were back in stock! Stupidly, it's listed as part of a random assortment, so I decided to order 100 of them, hoping for a third to be cherries but happy to get any at all.
32 pairs - 64 cherries! A lifetime supply of her favorite toy for my picky little baby <3
I'm happy for both of you, this is adorable.
I'm assuming the red part detaches easily from the rest? I hope your bumper crop means this will never be necessary, but should you find yourself in a pinch, the search term "Sequin Horsehair Crinoline Tube" might help you in the future.
Excellent search suggestion, that material looks identical to the cherry exterior! The inside has a plastic ball with a little bead that rattles and the stem is just a glued on bit of string.
I do wonder what it is about this toy that makes it the one for her. She'll come when she hears the rattle, but still chases crushed cherries that no longer make noise, and I don't think the stem matters too much, so it must be that crinoline material in a ball shape. I might buy some and see if I could make new toys she'd like. Thank you!
It's the toy that she has most associated with fun!