Yugi hogging the iPad.

I’m writing this with one hand while the other fends off a determined kitten. He loves his new toy. He can choose to play with a mouse, a butterfly, or a laser light. They make sounds when he hits them with a paw.

Die butterflies!

I did think it was adorable when I first saw it. How sweet, the kitty likes the app I got him. Then he started attacking the screen while I was watching a movie, when I checked my email, while I was reading posts on WordPress. He’s an iPad hogging little monster.

Bring back the mouse or I’ll buy that couch you keep looking at on EBay.

Beware the cat apps!

Beware!

I gotta say, I don’t even have a cat…but these are KOOL!

Friskies Games for Cats
This may have been the site and apps that started the craze. Friskies now have a number of iOS apps available in the iTunes App Store.

 Cat Fishing and its sequel, Cat Fishing 2 are both free. These should keep your kitty amused with colorful fishies swimming around which are easily patted away by curious paws.

Additional free titles in the series include Friskies JitterBug, Tasty Treasures Hunt and Party Mix-Up!, a particular favorite among cats who seemed to enjoy seeing a treat-shaped crunchy food bits spinnng against a black background.

Game for Cats
One of the earliest games for cats in the iTunes App Store for iPad owners was simply entitled Game for Cats. To this day, it still does a great job. The app is free to begin with, but an in-app purchase of $1.99 will unlock all its features. There are a couple of things for kitty to enjoy here including a laser pointer to chase. That $1.99  mentioned lets you move the laser directly with your iPhone for total control, and also unlocks a mouse with which your kitty can play. With sounds emitted every time the cat steps on the mouse or laser, this extra level of interactivity should keep cats interested for a while.

Paint for Cats

So what happens if Mr. Tiddles is a little more creative, or tires of chasing a cartoon mouse or fish shapes around the iPad screen? Well, for the cat owner who believes they may have a true artist in their midst, why not try Paint for Cats instead? A $1.99 investment gets you this intriguing app designed by Noel Murray, who also created Game for Cats.  The idea here is the cat chases the mouse, but this time a painting is created as they go. Some cats may react to the cool color splotches they leave in their wake, but it’s likely they’ll really just be chasing the mouse more than anything. You can print out kitty’s creation and hang it on the wall for all to see. Your cat, meanwhile, will likely be unimpressed by such pride in his or her artistic abilities and simply want more food or to take a nap.

Cat Piano Concerto

Once again, let’s step away from the usual cat-chases-mouse scenario and feature something a bit more unusual.
Cat Piano Concerto would be the best (or worst) 99 cents you will ever spend, depending on how your kitty reacts to it. Perhaps more importantly, much will depend on how irritated you are by the noises it makes. Launch the app, and a keyboard appears. As you run your fingers across the keys, various meows are emitted which will possibly drive you bonkers, but may amuse your cat at least. Put your iPad down on the floor and perhaps your kitty, too, will walk across the keys. So here is one cat-friendly app that both owner and feline can potentially enjoy. It’s hard to gauge whether the cats will be enticed or frightened by a chorus of meows, but dogs in the home may get a real kick out of it. A free version is available to try out first.

PlentyOfFur

Not every app for cats needs to be playful. Did you know there is even a social network now for cats and dogs called PlentyOfFur?   Admittedly, pet owners are likely to get a lot more benefit from this app than the cats themselves, but don’t tell kitty that. This free iPhone app (and its accompanying website) is certainly not supposed to be taken too seriously, and acts like a tongue-in-cheek Facebook for your pets. Put up a profile, share pictures and let your kitty find some new friends. PlentyOfFur also offers access to forums where pet owners can discuss diet, behavior and other issues or even share a few jokes. Perhaps when kitty is ailing one day, there will be some useful advice here once more cats sign-up!

Another great app that they make is called ‘Paint for Cats’. This one is the same type of app but instead of just the mouse running around aimlessly, it adds the fun factor of each time your cat touches the screen it paints either a paw print or paint smudge on the screen in different colors. In the end you have a very colorful ‘painting’ created by your cat! You can save it and even share it on Facebook or Twitter. Very cute!

So if you have a cat in your home, definitely be sure to check out this app. ;)

Smartphones and iPads have proved wildly popular among humans, but how will they fare among those with higher intelligence?

A growing number of apps are being created for cats — not cat owners. Seriously. (Do a YouTube search for “iPad and cats” or “cat plays with iPad” and you’ll see some amusing examples.) The apps do for pets what they generally do for people: help them fight boredom while also letting them look cool.

Titles like App for Cats, Cat Game and Cat Toy are free, while Game for Cats starts free but can be upgraded by your cat for $1. (More on that later.)

As you might expect, the apps are much more effective on iPads than other mobile devices, simply because of the larger format, but also because cats know a premium toy when they see one. This admittedly frivolous category has not reached Android or BlackBerry, but give it a few weeks and that could change. (I haven’t seen any apps for dogs, either, but that also can change.)

At their core, the games are the same: something moves across the screen — like a mouse or a dot — and if your cat swats it, the device visibly or audibly responds.

So which app is best?

I have a colleague whose cat is so engaged with Game for Cats that the animal won’t leave him alone when he takes out his iPad. I’m sure his cat is a very discerning consumer of apps. But I tested these apps with Kukio, my black cat of unknown pedigree who generally prefers live toys (like my wife’s undersize dog) to inanimate ones. If Kukio’s couch-potato reaction to these games is any indication, none of these titles is a sure winner.

That said, there are subtle differences in the games that can be relevant to your cat, and — may it please the Pulitzer board — I will spell them out here.

Game for Cats has two levels. The first features a red dot against a black background. This is the free level. After your cat plays this (or not) for a minute or so, a button appears that asks whether you want to upgrade to the mouse level for $1.

If your cat is pouncing on the first level, it is quite possible that it can buy the upgraded version without your knowing it because an iTunes password is not always needed to make an in-app purchase.

ITunes customers have complained that their cats nearly pulled off such shenanigans, but Nate Murray, one of the app’s developers, said he believed no cat had ever made a purchase.

He said the development team hadn’t considered the problem when they built the app because they were unaware that in-app purchases sometimes did not require a password.

While he was at it, Mr. Murray said he was confident — but not completely certain — that a cat’s claws would not harm an iPad’s screen. (Of course, if your cat has a pebble stuck in its paw, its gaming habit will absolutely wreck your screen.)

Mr. Murray said that because Game for Cats had built a following among cat owners who liked to post their pet’s high scores online, a forthcoming version would let people more easily share scores on Facebook, Twitter and in Apple’s Game Center.

“We think it’s a first in competitive video gaming for animals,” he said.

(And the quote-of-the-year competition is now closed.)

Kukio won’t be making an appearance on the competitive-gaming list or in the dozens of cat videos the game’s developers have posted on blog.ipadgameforcats.com. She swatted the screen once, then watched (with great interest) the dots and mice dart across the screen until I got tired of watching her.

Other iTunes users report similar experiences with Game for Cats and other apps.

App for Cats (free) has two screens and several kinds of bugs that meow when you hit them. (For what it’s worth, the meow sounded suspiciously human.)

Cat Game (free) was more fully featured. It offers a 30-second game, another with no time limit and five different background screens. Regardless of the backdrop, the object is to chase a dot.

Cat Toy (free), offered four objects to chase: a spider, a butterfly, a red dot and a tiny mouse that squeaked when tapped.

With Cat Toy! ($1), your cat chases a dot that comes in three colors. Humans seem unimpressed; 19 of the app’s 31 ratings are 1 star. Cat Toys ($1), a new app, features five game modes: mouse, rat, table tennis ball, frog and spider. Just seven reviewers have bothered to rate the app, but so far it has fared well.

Cat owners shouldn’t feel limited by these titles. As YouTube videos show, cats can also respond to apps that are great for humans, like Magic Piano ($1) or Koi Pond ($2 for iPad, $1 for iPhone).

Unfortunately, my cat failed to engage with any of these other apps. Although she watched the on-screen action closely, she apparently learned from Game for Cats that the objects on the screen could not be captured or eaten.

What this genre clearly needs is a 3-D element. Feline 3-D glasses could not be hard to design, and, properly fitted, the 3-D specs would pave the way for endless hours of iPad fun for cats everywhere. Plus they would look great.

I know nothing about the feline ophthalmological realities of this plan. Still, if it works, I believe this will be a first for competitive video gaming for animals.

Quick Calls

Android users will have an easier time finding good apps because of recent improvements in the Market. Each app’s page on their phones includes suggestions for similar apps and a more eye-catching interface. … If your football team failed to make the playoffs, there’s always hockey. The N.H.L. streams live video to iPads, with a paid upgrade from the free GameCenter app ($120 for video) or the $10 GameCenter Premium ($110 for video).