Joke products have a tendency to have a limited shelf life, so the Seattle-based creator of the Bug Gun updated the gag gift to incorporate pigs.

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The Bug Gun is a hand-held propulsion system that launches tiny plastic bugs toward unsuspecting targets -- like co-workers. But once it started to wane in popularity, Accoutrements, a Seattle manufacturer of gag items created the Pig Catapult, reported the New York Times Sunday.

Accoutrements' creative team gathered yet again in 2004 to update the product and created the Cat-A-Pult.

While the same "gun" was used for all the projects, the challenge was to design a series of cat figurines that would delight consumers -- rather than horrify.

"We decided it would be best if they were shown in mid-leap," said David Wahl, spokesman for Accoutrements. Cat-A-Pult is really good for offices, "because the trajectory of the cats is an arc, so they can go up over cubicles."