The first thing I should note is that the kitty crop was advertised as pink, but when I got mine it was purple. It is a very nice shade of lavender, but not what I was expecting. Other than that, it was precisely as pictured and described on the page.

When you pick up the toy, the first thing you notice is that the cat face at the end of the crop is a bit floppy. If you are like me, this will concern you, because you are used to crops that do not have floppy bats. Do not worry! It turns out (and I know this due to *extensive* testing) that the floppiness is truly a feature, not a bug. What it means is that when you whack someone with this toy, the kitty face can whip around much faster than you are swinging, giving this toy some extra oomph.

Trust me, you won't regret that extra oomph.

The crop itself is a little springy, making it easy to use and gentle on your wrists and arms. This thing just wants to get moving! However, you should note that the springiness and the length of the thin crop section means that you won't get any caning sensations out of this toy. For that, you want a more traditional crop. This toy is purely for smacking someone with cat faces, and it quite exceeds expectations in that regard.

Now for the important question: will this toy leave little cat-face marks on your bottom? The answer is YES! On someone who is very light-skinned, you can expect to get the full cat-face when you use the side with the eyes and whiskers. You really *will* see the whole face on the skin of your bottom, eyes and whiskers and all. The other side of the cat-face doesn't have the raised leather eyes and whiskers, for when you don't want to get the full effect. On someone with even a little bit of a tan, you will not get a clear imprint of the eyes and whiskers, but you will get the outline of the cat-face and even that's pretty cool, especially if you're playing with someone who has a thing for cats. (If you are set on getting the eyes and whiskers to show up and your partner is a little dark, I recommend trying the inside of their thighs, where the skin is often a bit lighter.)

Just a note: if you're going for marks of this nature, what you should do is give your bottom a good whack on their ass or thighs, and wait about 2 minutes for the skin to develop the mark. It's not going to bruise, but you will get a nice red flush in the correct pattern after about 2 minutes. If you keep whacking them in the same spot, the whole area will turn red and you won't be able to see the marks anymore. That's also fun, but will not make cats.

On to the sensation: people generally talk about "stingy" toys (singletails, for instance) vs. "thuddy" toys (heavy floggers, for instance). I think there is a third category, "slappy" toys, which is more like being spanked, or hit with a leather paddle: something thuddy with sting all mixed in throughout. This toy is in the "slappy" category, but since the area is relatively small compared with most slappy toys, it is easier to process and a good introduction to that type of sensation. This is very versatile toy, and is particularly good for warm up, because it can get the blood flowing very quickly. Depending on how much force you use, you can go from really light sensations to reasonably intense ones - the bottoms I played with both seemed to consider the toy quite painful, given the noises they were making. However, if you happen to be playing with a very heavy bottom, just keep in mind that this is not the toy that will be leaving bruises for a week.

The side with the raised eyes is a bit more stingy than the side without the raised eyes, but to be perfectly honest, when I was being whacked repeatedly, I couldn't tell the difference at all. Finally, the cat ears are sharp, so you can use them to toss in a little variety.

One final note: As with all "slappy" toys, it is relatively loud - just about as loud as if you were spanking someone. Of course, with all BDSM toys, how loud the toy is in practice really depends on how loud your *partner* is in practice....

I forgot to add this to the review earlier, but a few notes on safety:

* The best places to use this toy are on the butt-cheeks and thighs, especially if you're new to BDSM.
* Do not use this on someone's face, even if it would be cool to have cat marks on their cheeks. The ears are sharpish and you don't want to accidentally scratch their eyes.
* Start off slow, to get a feel for the crop. It's really easy to use, and a good beginner toy, but it still takes a few strokes before you feel confident that you can hit what you're aiming for.
* If the leather gets in contact with any bodily fluids, you should clean it before using it on different partners. A Bactrin spray is good enough, or wipe it down with a little soap and water. You should not put this in the washing machine.

If anyone thinks of anything else or if I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me!

And have fun :-)