A (failed!) Attempt At Catifying Bunny�s Place

Being on holiday gave me time to read and of course it’s reading up on something that would benefit (or so I thought!) the cats.

This wonderfully informative book was gifted to me by Chen (thanks, Chen!) and it’s Jackson Galaxy’s (from the hit TV show, “My Cat from Hell” (Indeed! Aren’t they all?)).

So, what is Catification?

And I was attracted to this part where he says the objective of Catification is to reduce the negative territory marking, ie. spaying urine (my hellish nightmare from Cow, Bunny and Indy!).

So I spent hours poring over the pages and lovely photos, dreaming up an ideal remodelling of Bunny’s Place with lovely shelves and staircase and carefully planned catified areas. We had also made a trip to Ikea earlier yesterday, and Mr Galaxy wrote that some of Ikea shelves come in really handy for DIY-Catification.

After drawing some plans, our first move was to change the orientation of Cleo’s apartment by moving it ninety degrees so that it is aligned against the window, thus creating an interesting entrance for the cats from the washing machine at the pantry directly onto the second floor of Cleo’s apartment. No ambush zones or dead ends. The traffic should still flow.

I thought of replacing the apartment (as it’s being urine-marked on a daily basis now) with strategically placed Ikea shelves screwed onto tiled wall. It should work and would also be more aesthetically pleasing to the human eye. We even saw some of the exact shelves in the book at Ikea!

Oh my…how interesting!

So we moved the apartment…

Tabs was the first to explore.

She had some difficulty getting from the window sill to the top floor as Tabs is a big cat. But she managed, somehow. Then, once she had got onto the top floor, she went back and forth and oh dear….she started mewing. Tabs couldn’t come down! Shall we move the sofa nearer as a step for her?

Cleo was looking from the pantry shelf, almost shaking her head and rolling her eyeballs upwards. I could hear her say, “You think you’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you? Took you hours to think of this move?? Tsk, tsk, tsk….”

After a brief discussion, we decided to revert to status quo.

Why fix something that already works?

The second floor of Cleo’s apartment is a sort-of highway for the cats.

It was only after moving the apartment that I realised how important this arrangement has been for the cats. And when the apartment was moved and I placed the baskets differently, one cat had already gone and urine-marked one of the baskets. My, that was quick!

 Leaving well enough alone…is wise. 

Well, I can still drool over the lovely photos in the book and dream, can’t I?

We’ll just have to put up with Cow, Bunny and Indy’s marking. After all, catification is about making the cats feel comfortable and they sure feel comfortable doing what they do. It’s just us humans who are uncomfortable!

I shall still read more…

Hmm, Mr Galaxy did not include “Titans” under his cat types.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2016/02/12/a-failed-attempt-at-cati..

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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