We desperately need an automated thingee for the cats to play with.  I'm not
always here and my health doesn't allow me to stay on their schedules.
Before I look this up on Petco & Petsmart, I'd like to get your ideas.

The thingee was a battery operated gizmo that had a string attached to it.
The string was knotted at the end.  The other end of the string was attached
to a large hoozee that swiveled and rotated at random when we turned the
gizmo on.  The swinging string got the little beasts attention and they
played with it, just as they do with the strings on the wands that we twirl
around.

Picture a desk lamp that bends.  The lamp is the hoozee that holds the
string a twists and turns.  It has a neck about a foot and half inches tall.
We place it on a small table and they play with the moving string.  The
whole thing is the thingee.  Make sense?

Trouble is that the gizmo wouldn't swing around enough and the batteries
didn't last.  They played with it, but it died young.  There are plenty of
mousee toys and a catnip sock that they play with and we play wandee toy a
lot, but I need sumpin else to keep 'em amused.

Maybe there's a better way to describe this whatchamacallit, but I can't
think of anything.

Any ideas?