#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!

Staged To Death at Amazon

Staged To Death at Barnes & Noble

©2014 Karen Rose Smith

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WHAT CAN A COVER REVEAL? A new mystery series by Karen Rose Smith

Caprice De Luca is a sleuth with personality!  She's a home-stager and likes to use unique themes for the houses she stages so they sell faster and tempt house hunters from all over to her open houses.  But Caprice herself, at thirty-two is a retro girl.  With her hair style from the 70's, her vintage clothes from the 50's and 60's, and her gravitation toward unique pieces, her home reflects her likes and personality.  My cover for STAGED TO DEATH, the first Caprice De Luca home-stager mystery says it all.

It's like a treasure map that will tell you important details about Caprice and the book.  The colors are so 60's, Caprice's favorite decade.  In her 50's Pennsylvania Cape Cod house, you'll find an overstuffed fuchsia chair in her living room.  If you look closely, you'll see the name of the series on the laptop.  Her cat Sophia--named after her Nana's favorite actress, Sophia Loren--sits atop her turquoise-carpeted cat tree.  Could any cat be happier?  And Caprice's stray dog, Dylan, has decided being friends with Sophia pleases Caprice.

Besides spotlighting that Caprice's favorite colors are fuchsia, turquoise, lime green and yellow, this cover reveals her personality, her vocation for caring for stray animals and her desire to surround herself and her clients with a mood that suits their own lifestyle.

I'm so excited to reveal the STAGED TO DEATH cover to you.  Although December seems to be a long way away, you can preorder the mystery now.

Oh, and did I mention this series will include recipes?  Caprice comes from a large Italian family and likes to cook.

Soon I'll have an excerpt from STAGED TO DEATH on my mystery website.  Stay tuned for more blogs about decorating, cooking, dogs and cats and everything that makes this series unique.

©2013 Karen Rose Smith

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RESCUING A KITTEN, Zoie Is Growing Up!

Since we rescued Zoie Joy on June 19, 2012, she has been eating and growing, becoming long and sleek and muscled and beautiful.  But, of course, I'm prejudiced.  Her golden eyes are the most intense and definitely part of her personality.  At the beginning of March, Zoie will be about ten months old.  She is still growing into herself. Like a teenager not quite at home in her body, she wants to run and play like a kitten but doesn't fit into some of those small spaces where she used to hide!  She runs up and down her cat tree with more force than she realizes and when she jumps down onto the recliner, she's surprised when the back thumps down and the chair makes a loud noise. (But she loves the jump.)

Zoie and London are playing like equals now.  They chase each other, stand on their back paws and bat at each other, yet take naps about three feet apart if I'm close by, too.  If we put them in the same room--like when repair men come--they each find their corner and get along.  Ebbie and Zoie are in the same vicinity most of the day.  Ebbie has her little "apartment" under a window with steps and a pillow stacked on a box to give her extra space.  To the top of the pillow, I added a thermal heat pad for Ebbie's arthritic joints.  On the other side of the steps is a stool where she can sit to catch a different view.  As long as Ebbie is in this area, Zoie doesn't bother her except to jump up there now and then to rub against Ebbie or to nip her ear to say hello.  However, if Ebbie climbs down from her apartment, Zoie will chase her back up.  (Since Zoie sleeps in my office at night, Ebbie has the run of the house then.)

Zoie's food choices are changing.  Although kitten food should be the nourishment the first year, Zoie is beginning to walk away from the kitty cans with squishy food.  She's preferring chunks, more adult cuts.  So I tempt her with the chunks to hide the squishy food underneath.  She prefers dry food, which we limit.  She will gobble up Ebbie's raw food as well as chicken and gravy from our supper.  She's partial to the odds and ends of roasted chicken wings.

Zoie is thriving.  We clip her nails once a month and she's tolerating that without much fuss when she's sleepy.  She still likes to hide under a cover for a nightly nap while we watch TV, sleep on my furry throws or high up on the cat tree.  She's beginning to sit on my desk and watch while I'm on the computer.  The birds outside the window provide her with entertainment value, though at times she still likes to jump on the chest and watch TV.

But most of all, she likes to be wherever we are.  She stretches up for a head rub often.  She cuddles close when sleeping.  Zoie Joy is still bringing us layers and layers of joy that I'm thankful for every day.

    
©2013 Karen Rose Smith

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