Pet Ready: So You're Planning to Get a Cat?
How to get your house in order in time for your new feline family member
Joanna Tovia
21 September 2014
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well. Follow her photodocumentary about pets and the people who love them on Instagram @unfoldingtails
Houzz editorial team. Photojournalist specialising in design, travel and living well.... More
Whether friendly or aloof, a cat can be great company and is sure to make your house feel more like a home. Know what you’re letting yourself in for before signing on the dotted line, though, and prepare your house for every potential ‘cat-astrophe’. And most importantly? Get ready to shower your new cat with love.
Here are some top tips for getting ready for your new feline friend.
Here are some top tips for getting ready for your new feline friend.
Give your cat a warm welcome
Every cat believes he or she is the head of the household, so you may as well give them the throne they deserve. The softer and fluffier the better.
Every cat believes he or she is the head of the household, so you may as well give them the throne they deserve. The softer and fluffier the better.
Hide valuable items out of reach
Your new friend will gravitate towards all the texture-rich throws, jumpers and bedding they can get their paws on, especially if the items are new or expensive. Look at your house through a cat’s eyes and put away anything you’d rather they not lie on. Easy.
Your new friend will gravitate towards all the texture-rich throws, jumpers and bedding they can get their paws on, especially if the items are new or expensive. Look at your house through a cat’s eyes and put away anything you’d rather they not lie on. Easy.
Plan ahead with smart toilet strategies
This laundry is a dream come true for a cat owner and cat alike. By day, the cat can come and go as it pleases through an artfully placed cat flap in the wall. By night, with the cat flap closed, the birds can rest safely in their trees knowing the cat is in until morning. The kitty litter tray is tucked away out of sight in the cupboard near the cat door.
This laundry is a dream come true for a cat owner and cat alike. By day, the cat can come and go as it pleases through an artfully placed cat flap in the wall. By night, with the cat flap closed, the birds can rest safely in their trees knowing the cat is in until morning. The kitty litter tray is tucked away out of sight in the cupboard near the cat door.
Get your relationship off to a good start with a healthy sense of humour
Have some fun with your new family member – accommodating their needs (and dealing with the inevitable bumps in the road) can best be done with a playful approach. This porthole could be the purr-fect doorway to your cat’s outdoor adventures.
Have some fun with your new family member – accommodating their needs (and dealing with the inevitable bumps in the road) can best be done with a playful approach. This porthole could be the purr-fect doorway to your cat’s outdoor adventures.
Create a claw-sharpening drawcard
You have a choice: either leave it to luck that your clothes, furniture and rugs will escape the shredding claws of your cat unscathed, or introduce your new kitty to a purpose-built scratching post. Then cross your fingers anyway.
You have a choice: either leave it to luck that your clothes, furniture and rugs will escape the shredding claws of your cat unscathed, or introduce your new kitty to a purpose-built scratching post. Then cross your fingers anyway.
Decide where your cat’s going to eat
Let’s be honest. Your cat isn’t likely to care about home decor, but you do and that’s a good enough reason to pretty up every corner of the house. If you already own a dog, think about how you’re going to protect the cat’s food from canine consumption.
Let’s be honest. Your cat isn’t likely to care about home decor, but you do and that’s a good enough reason to pretty up every corner of the house. If you already own a dog, think about how you’re going to protect the cat’s food from canine consumption.
Protect your favourite furniture
You’ll have little control over where your cat chooses to snooze, so a well-placed barrier between the cat and your most-loved chairs can be sanity saving.
You’ll have little control over where your cat chooses to snooze, so a well-placed barrier between the cat and your most-loved chairs can be sanity saving.
Make it easy for your cat to find the kitty litter
This fabulous take on a cartoon mouse door is sure to raise a smile on anyone seeing it for the first time … including your cat! It leads to the kitty litter tray housed in the main bathroom.
This fabulous take on a cartoon mouse door is sure to raise a smile on anyone seeing it for the first time … including your cat! It leads to the kitty litter tray housed in the main bathroom.
Remove anything fragile from sun-drenched vantage points
If there’s a sunny spot at your house, make no mistake – your cat will find it. If that sunny spot also happens to have a view of the outside, it is sure to become the place your cat hangs out most. Scan for anything breakable and relocate it to prevent tragedy.
If there’s a sunny spot at your house, make no mistake – your cat will find it. If that sunny spot also happens to have a view of the outside, it is sure to become the place your cat hangs out most. Scan for anything breakable and relocate it to prevent tragedy.
Don’t panic if your cat appears to go missing
There will come a time when your new cat seems to vanish. You’ll look high, you’ll look low, you’ll call out their name in despair. Just when you’re about to pin up lost-cat posters, you’ll hear the plaintive miaow of a cat ready to be found. The lesson here is to first look in the place you least expect your cat to be napping.
SHARE WITH US
We’d like to hear your new cat stories in the comments section below.
There will come a time when your new cat seems to vanish. You’ll look high, you’ll look low, you’ll call out their name in despair. Just when you’re about to pin up lost-cat posters, you’ll hear the plaintive miaow of a cat ready to be found. The lesson here is to first look in the place you least expect your cat to be napping.
SHARE WITH US
We’d like to hear your new cat stories in the comments section below.
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Has a similar experience. One of my cats is large and fat and fluffy and apricot in colour. I'd purchased a new cotton filled "puffy" apricot coloured velvetine bedspread. Came home from shopping and usually both my pusses are waiting on the sunny veranda watching for the car...and the shopping bags containing the food...they know! This particular day the fluffy one was missing...what? OIPE not interested in rummaging through the bag with the cat food? Something must be wrong. I called and called and was sure I's not missed a single corner where usually you'd find a cat snoozing or quietly observing with a wicked look on its face watching you walk around the place almost frantic because you thought something had befallen your beloved feline. For the umteenth time I walked past the bed....from the corner of my eye I saw a bigger "pouffe" that was not part of the original design on the bedcpread...OIPE had claimed the middle of the velvetine bedspread as her personal throne and she could hardly be destinguished as she sat there staring ( and smirking) at me with her big green eyes! I would have missed her again had her mate...a marmelade ginger, not alerted me by jumping on the bed and giving OIPE a nudge...:Oh go on, give Mum a break you fat loll-about! Cats enjoy teasing so if you are thinking of intriducing one to your home maybe you need to select one that is not colour co-ordinated with your decor!
This is OIPE...and me.
One night I was looking for my cat to check she was inside before closing the cat fall. I couldn't find her and thought she must be having a last trip out before settling down.
Not wanting to waste time, I started emptying the dishwasher and tidying up the kitchen. Then I heard her. Echoing.
She sounded like she was inside something hollow. I searched all the cupboards and found that she had climbed into the still-warm warming drawer, and that my partner had shut her in as he was doing the dishes!