Showing posts with label cat steps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cat steps. Show all posts

Sunday, May 4, 2014

#Cat Trees, Cat condos and Cat steps (including cute cat #photos) by Karen Rose Smith



Anyone who reads my blogs or follows me on Facebook and Twitter knows that I'm a cat lover. I've had cats as companions since I was about eight years old which has helped me learn about their habits, preferences and needs. At the moment my husband and I are parents to three rescued cats--two are thirteen years old (Ebbie--a beautiful sable/black cat, and London--a gray tabby).  The little one Zoie Joy (a black feline with half a tuxedo) is two.
Ebbie
Zoie

Just as we try to make the humans we live with happy, the same is true of taking care of cats and dealing with their personalities.  Cat trees, cat condos and cat steps help keep ours happy, healthy and contented.

It seems to be the nature of felines to want to perch high in a room to overlook the window, yards and everything inside.  A floor to ceiling cat tree can fit in a corner by a window and serve several purposes.  A cat can be high off the ground and feel safe.  He or she can share the space with a sibling and still have her or his own space.  Most cat trees are carpeted and can be used as scratching posts.


Zoie
Zoie
Cat condos come in all sizes. Some include a secluded space where a feline can feel secure.  Our smallest, Zoie, likes burrow holes to take naps.  Usually condos are sized to fit right at a window so cats can be entertained by the world outside without being harmed by it.  Condos are usually carpeted or covered with sisal for happy scratching.
London and Zoie
Ebbie and Zoie

Our oldest cat, Ebbie, hurt her back a few years ago.  She wouldn't move from my bed for about ten days, except to use her litter box.  I found a set of stairs she can easily climb to see out a window.  I've expanded them with a bench on one side and boxes on the other to give her a little room to spread out when she's hurting.  She didn't particularly like the steps in order to climb to the bed.  But she did like this hassock type condo for that purpose.  It gives her enough space to be able to get a good footing to hop to the bed.  (We move everything around to suit their needs and ours!)
London and Zoie


Ebbie, London and Zoie use all of the above.  We've been collecting them for many years. Here are a few places where I found condos, steps, and cat trees.

Drs. Foster & Smith

Petco

Amazon (pet supplies)
Zoie


In my Caprice De Luca home staging mystery series, Caprice is an animal lover too!  She takes in strays and finds them homes.  She has a long-haired calico named Sophia and has equipped Sophia with a floor to ceiling, turquoise carpeted cat tree which my cover artist put on the cover!