I'm an only child, and the destructive tendancies of cats are not as well-known as those of dogs, so my parents kept around enough breakable things for our entertainment. (Actually, my mother once left a pair of particularly hideous wedding-gift vases from my aunt at the very edge of a low and accessible table, taking advantage of the inevitable.)

I think in the end mom took up embroidery just to find something non-breakable, but cat + string = further disaster and maybem.