How To Spoil Your Cat Without Breaking The Bank
A while back on Twitter, I saw a picture of a family’s elaborate cat tree. It was a huge multi-level affair with platforms, tunnels and plenty of places to climb. The picture showed the entirety of the structure in a corner of their home next to some boxes. Their cat was sleeping on an adjoining box and totally ignoring the cat tree.
I know what you’re thinking now. Bah, cats! They are intransigent creatures! Which is true, there’s no figuring out a cat.
What I didn’t tell you about the fancy cat tree was that it was all black and white. It looks good to us humans, but how does it look to a cat?
Regular readers know that I adopted a rescue kitten last December. Viva Diva was abused early in her life, but she’s been with us since she was about two months old and has recovered beautifully.
Regular readers also know that I prefer to make stuff with materials on hand rather than go out and buy something. Like most households, we have a fair amount of junk laying around. It’s only natural for us to re-purpose those things into something usable.
Mount Diva
Mount Diva was the first big piece and still V’s favorite. Also known as her jungle gym, it stands over five feet tall and features a climbing pole, a cushioned perch at the top and a “secret” hidey-hole at the bottom. Please notice that it’s festooned with a riot of dangling objects. There’s some Christmas garland, a lei, several pieces of old cat toys strung together and a bit of old carpeting.
It’s not pretty. It’s not a designer piece by any means. But she loves it and it only cost the time to put it together. Every piece of it was stuff we already had but didn’t have a use for. We even recycled the toys from our previous cat, Charles Howard.
The Viva complex
The next big piece came courtesy of my dad’s garage. It’s just a six foot wooden ladder, but Viva is a climber so I brought it home. My husband designed and installed a small carpeted platform that fits at the top. The platform is removable so we can fold up the ladder and put it away if necessary.
As you can see, the ladder is similarly festooned with stuff. It’s still a work in progress though, I hear news of a cat hammock strung between the legs. For the longest time, V didn’t climb the ladder, she preferred to jump from her easy chair to the platform.
That all changed when the mini-trampoline came home. Set up at the base of the ladder, she now loves to launch herself up the ladder and is exceedingly proud when she claims the top step. The trampoline is also a great pedestal if you wish to display your fat, fuzzy cat belly to an adoring public. It also bounces, that trampoline, especially if you jump from one the higher steps of the ladder.
Viva is still figuring out the wonders of the bouncy trampoline. I fully expect some adorable bouncing cat antics in the future.
That easy chair is our one bone of contention. Viva likes to sleep on the top of it and that’s all it’s used for. I want to get rid of it and buy a better chair, husband is preventing it so far. As usual, Viva wins.
This last piece is the newest in the cat collection. Made from old couch springs rolled into a cylinder, it’s basically just a metal tube. The cylinder is lined with very crunchy packing paper and covered with an old sheet. V loves the sound of the paper and is obsessed with sheets, naturally she loves the tube. There’s even a sheet tail at the back for better camouflage.
She loves to be chased into the tunnel and loves hiding inside it so she can spring out and attack unsuspecting feet. Also, it’s a great place to get a ride. Viva gets comfortable inside and one of her people picks it up and takes her across the house or merely swings the tube from side to side. It’s first class travel, feline style.
Not all of V’s toys are big pieces. An old, dilapidated rag rug is among her favorite things. There are plenty of loose strings to play with and, if you get a running start, the rug slides pretty far on the hardwood floor. Also, there’s a plain piece of the crunchy packing paper just laying on the floor of our bedroom. Simply rolling around on it makes a noise that is delightful to kitty ears.
The point I’m trying to make is that the cat sees life differently than we do. She cares not for fancy, color-coordinated decor. Such things are not important to a cat. She cares about textures and sounds, comfort and play-ability, not how it looks.
I’m all about spoiling my animals. Being able to spoil a furry creature rotten is one of the few unfettered joys in the world, one many of us indulge in. It doesn’t take a lot of money to allow a cat to live in grand style, just some imagination. Let your kitty tell you what she wants, be it a big ladder of just a pile of old newspapers.
I call our genre of homemade pieces “catpunk”. It’s like steampunk but with much less metal 
I just know there are plenty of you out there with some fantastical objets de chat and I want to see them! Post them to the interwebz and share the links here.
Because we’re crazy about our cats.
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