PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Hasbro Inc. is out of FurReal Friends cats, and some shoppers may be out of luck as many toy retailers keep inventory lean to avoid a blue Christmas.

With Christmas approaching, the second-largest U.S. toy maker is shipping some FurReal Friends kittens it planned to sell next year to stores to quench demand, said spokesman Wayne Charness. "We have no more left to sell."

Some retailers who have ordered less this year to keep inventory low on concern that consumer spending will be dampened might end up losing sales if an out-of-stock toy unexpectedly catches the public's fancy.

"This year there's going to be a lot more of things running out," said Jim Silver, publisher of Toy Wishes magazine.

By Dec. 6, Toys 'R' Us Inc. had run out of Mattel Inc.'s Chicken Dance Elmo and Kasey the Kinderbot in addition to Hasbro's FurReal Friends cats, which purr and meow when stroked.

Sharon Roff went to the KB Toys store in Lawrence Township, N.J., recently for the Yu-Gi-Oh trading card game tin that KB had advertised in a flier, and two other specific Yu-Gi-Oh game cards for her 7-year-old son and two nephews.

"This is my third store today," Roff said. "I couldn't even find them online. My friend's daughter is looking for those FurReal Friends. She even asked people in South Carolina."

Toy sales, excluding video games, are expected to be little-changed from last year at $25 billion, according to market researcher NPD Group.

Some toy makers said they'd rather be left short than stuck with leftover merchandise that needs to be discounted in order to be cleared out, hurting profit.

"We don't look at this as a problem," said Harold Chizick, spokesman of Spin Master Toys, which sold out of its stock of ICEE maker and Hershey's Chocolate Magic machines several weeks ago. "There's a lot of inventory out there at retail. You don't want to be sitting on excess inventory after the holidays."