Cats can be expensive. Savvy businesses have twigged to the fact that cat owners tend to spend more than dog owners on accessories for their cats. Part of this is because more and more cats are being kept indoors 100% of the time, which is the responsible thing to do but it means that cat owners need to provide ways for their cat to exercise and play indoors. Dog owners, on the other hand, can take their dog out and play ball in the park. The need to exercise an indoor cat means that cat owners are usually willing to buy large and elaborate cat trees so their cat can climb and scratch. Cats also like to look out the window and sleep up high so cat trees are perfect for that.
Realising the need for large cat trees, and realising that pet owners in general are suckers for their pet's happiness, the cat tree/accessory industry is huge and stupidly expensive. There is one particular company, which I won't name, that makes a very distinctive type of cat tree. These trees are very sturdy (like, 50kg) and cats apparently love them... but the smallest ones, which are about the size of a footstool, are roughly $300. The tallest and most elaborate is $980. I'm willing to spend $980 to stop my cat dying but there's no way I'm spending nearly one thousand dollars so that Sophie has somewhere comfy to sleep. Like she'd know the difference anyway... the other day I found her asleep draped across the rungs of a dining chair in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.
Sophie is an indoor-only cat, so I recognise the need for some sort of cat tree/scratching post. It will keep her entertained and exercised and, hopefully, will stop her scratching my furniture and climbing the curtains. Well, that's how it's supposed to work. She does have a small scratching post with a couple of levels that I bought from the Reject Shop, and she loves it, but it's not very sturdy and there's no way she'll be able to use it when she's full grown. British Shorthairs tend to be stocky and heavy... like a little barrel with legs. So I've been looking online and in stores and have been horrified at the prices of some things I've seen. Not only that, most cat trees are tall and narrow so a heavy cat would knock it over in no time. I was starting to despair until I stumbled across the website for Lunic Pet Accessories. Yes, I'm shamelessly plugging them because they were fantastic. Their website said they'll design a cat tree/scratching post to your requirements so I emailled them and gave a very vague description of what I wanted. They came back with a few designs, we tweaked them, and this was the end result:
It's 130cm tall, 80cm long and 50cm wide. The whole thing (including being delivered and assembled) cost me $170, which is about $100 cheaper than anything else I saw of a comparable size, and about $200 less than anything I saw of a comparable size plus quality and sturdiness.
I'm very happy with it and Sophie loves it... but I admit there was a moment where I thought, "Hmmm... I'm buying a piece of personally designed, hand-crafted furniture for my cat."
Yeah.... I think I'll pop off now. I have to go pick up my membership card for the Crazy Cat Lady Society.
Realising the need for large cat trees, and realising that pet owners in general are suckers for their pet's happiness, the cat tree/accessory industry is huge and stupidly expensive. There is one particular company, which I won't name, that makes a very distinctive type of cat tree. These trees are very sturdy (like, 50kg) and cats apparently love them... but the smallest ones, which are about the size of a footstool, are roughly $300. The tallest and most elaborate is $980. I'm willing to spend $980 to stop my cat dying but there's no way I'm spending nearly one thousand dollars so that Sophie has somewhere comfy to sleep. Like she'd know the difference anyway... the other day I found her asleep draped across the rungs of a dining chair in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.
Sophie is an indoor-only cat, so I recognise the need for some sort of cat tree/scratching post. It will keep her entertained and exercised and, hopefully, will stop her scratching my furniture and climbing the curtains. Well, that's how it's supposed to work. She does have a small scratching post with a couple of levels that I bought from the Reject Shop, and she loves it, but it's not very sturdy and there's no way she'll be able to use it when she's full grown. British Shorthairs tend to be stocky and heavy... like a little barrel with legs. So I've been looking online and in stores and have been horrified at the prices of some things I've seen. Not only that, most cat trees are tall and narrow so a heavy cat would knock it over in no time. I was starting to despair until I stumbled across the website for Lunic Pet Accessories. Yes, I'm shamelessly plugging them because they were fantastic. Their website said they'll design a cat tree/scratching post to your requirements so I emailled them and gave a very vague description of what I wanted. They came back with a few designs, we tweaked them, and this was the end result:
It's 130cm tall, 80cm long and 50cm wide. The whole thing (including being delivered and assembled) cost me $170, which is about $100 cheaper than anything else I saw of a comparable size, and about $200 less than anything I saw of a comparable size plus quality and sturdiness.
I'm very happy with it and Sophie loves it... but I admit there was a moment where I thought, "Hmmm... I'm buying a piece of personally designed, hand-crafted furniture for my cat."
Yeah.... I think I'll pop off now. I have to go pick up my membership card for the Crazy Cat Lady Society.
3 comments:
Hey, Crazy Cat Lady, I think it looks great! Sturdy, good value for money, lots of exciting possibilities for Sophie and you even have photographic evidence that she USED it once.
(There is nothing worse than spending money on your pet only to find that they don't like the thing you bought for them.)
I know, I was terrified that she'd hate the 'new carpet' smell and develop a permanent aversion to it. Fortunately the people who made it (who have several cats) were smart enough to rub catnip over it. Sophie went NUTS over it... for a while there I thought she was going to chew right through the carpet! Eventually she calmed down and has enjoyed climbing and sleeping. She was most disgruntled last night when I locked her away in another room at bedtime.
I am amazed that only cost $170. It looks great! And Sophie looks very happy there too.
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