Cat Supplies - Feather Teasers

Ah, the joy of bringing home a new toy to try with the kitties. We recently bought a "teaser" and yes, I did have to look up what it is called. I'm not sold on the name of this toy category,  but okay.

Be prepared to take it into another room to remove it from the cardboard and snap the extension onto the pole. Because about 2 seconds after it came out, this happened. My husband couldn't even hold it up for a pic.

Atlas, Isley, and Aphrodite were ready to start before we were.

I'm kind of surprised we haven't tried it before, but we're more toy mouse people than "teaser" people. I always thought the kitties found enough things around the house to chase. The pulls on the mini blinds, the cord to the cell phone charger, the wrap-arounds to my adorable muckluck type winter boots... I figured we could tie something on the end of any number of shoe laces, Christmas ribbon, or craft yarn. Paying for something long on a stick seemed silly, so we just never did it.

Of course, I thought buying the cats cat beds was ridiculous until we did it. I can be wrong. And I think, in this case, I was. The cats did love it.

Atlas took a big leap onto the back of the hubby's desk chair to get it. This was before we started playing with it. I was turned and focusing in an entirely different direction but was outdone and outmanuevered. His face says it all here.

Once we removed it from his claws, we were able to involve some other kitties. Sweet Pea loved it, too. Reach for the stars, Sweet Pea!

Arty watched from my nearby desk chair. We could tell from her eyes she was very interested. We flew it close to her and she grabbed it easily and with vigor!

Atlas, however remained the most steadfast of the predators. He spent a good 2 full minutes holding onto it for dear life and licking it. They are lucky cats to not have to survive on their hunting skills. A feather came off and Sweet Pea focused on it and gave it a bat in the background.

Here is a quick video of some of the other kitties playing with it for the first time. Highly recommend this toy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfpWDI1Jm6U

They are not terribly expensive, but they also are not built to last. We bought a little value pack - one wand with 3 interchangeable "teasers" (argh! How I hate that name! It doesn't turn them into little stripper kitties with boas!). The only one we've focused on here is the feather one. Last time I bought cat food, there was an 800 number to call on the receipt in order to take a survery from Petsmart. I called, spent 2 minutes rating my visit, and got a $3 coupon code. That made this toy less than 4 bucks for all 3 pieces and the wand. Score!

Although I think even without the coupon, it would have been worth the full price, if only for these priceless pictures of our sweet Atlas. I mean, our savage beast Atlas! Lick, lick.

Cat Supplies - Cat Beds

Atlas was our first cat. He always found plenty of places to curl up and get comfortable. The couch, the seat of any chair, the foot of our bed. We thought buying a kitty bed for him was ridiculous. He slept anywhere and all the time! Waste of money! Besides, we thought it was cute when we'd find him somewhere like the basket by the door (that held the dog's things).

Then, we got Pandora. As she grew, her ability to make her own bed was a little more inventive.

Yes, that is my computer. Kinda hard to check my email, though.

We stumbled upon some run of the mill, no frills, boring as anything donut cat beds on sale one fateful day at Petsmart. They were like 4 or 5 bucks, so we got a couple. Boy, if we had known, we sure would have been stocking up on those. EVERY cat that we own loves the donut bed. They have a quilted sherpa type lining. They also come in different sizes. They come in lots of colors (although if you're sale/clearance oriented like we are, sometimes there isn't much choice.).

As is evidenced by the one baby pink bed we have (not the hubby's favorite, for sure). When our first 3 kittens (Left to right - Hermes, Aphrodite, and Artemis) found us, they all fit into one small donut.

As they grew, only one or two could manage to squeeze in. Arty and Hermes are so cute here.

As time passed, we'd find this bed or that bed on clearance and we'd give it a try. When the second litter of kittens found us, we had this deep bed in their room for them. They loved it. I remember these days - back when we were calling every rescue within 100 miles of St. Louis. It was kitten season. No one had room. We were lucky to find one home for one of these kitties. The rest, well, we did try! Clockwise from the grey and white kitten (Isley), Bernie, Sweet Pea/Mary Lou (our look-a-likes!) and Little Susie (who we found a home for).

 

When the kittens moved into the main part of our house, the bed came with them. Arty settled into it almost immediately. It is completely hers. She very rarely is out of it during the day. Each cat has individual preferences and interests. That's something important we've had to learn.

Since Arty loved this bed, and once in a while the others wanted to try it as well, we searched and searched for another deep bed. We ended up going with this green one from Dr. Fosters and Smith, thinking that Arty would go crazy for it. It is very big and very deep. It was also a different type of fabric. The cats took a long time to warm up to this bed. It took Arty about 2 months to try it. It was so deep that they weren't used to it and the fabric must not have immediately felt right to them. We ended up putting a small donut bed in the bottom, and it's been a big hit ever since. Here are Mary Lou and Sweet Pea in it, all grown up.

Here's just Sweet Pea enjoying the bed. We call Sweet Pea the fat twin. At least we can tell them apart easily now!

Another clearance bed we found was this brown one. It has a little mouse embroidered on the front. It is a little larger than a donut bed and is in a smoother fleece fabric.

Most of the cats love this bed. Atlas and Arty are modeling in it in these photos. And proving that dogs and cats can live together in peace.

Buying a cat bed is not necessarily a must. Ours have certain non-bed places that they like at certain times of day. Windowsills, baskets, and on the carpet where the sun is shining through the windows. They still enjoy human furniture for lounging as well. There are other ways you can use things you already have to make a place that is inviting to kitties. Really, any folded up blanket will do just fine in an area that seems like a good place for a kitty bed. On top of a dresser, we folded up an old twin comforter. The cats love to stretch out up there (like Isley is doing in the photo here). On laundry day, when I've brought up all the folded blankets, if they set out on the dining room table for too long, I will have 4 or 5 cats asleep in them.

 

Our cats also love dog beds. We have a couple giant dog beds (since we have a giant dog). From kitten-hood, Aphrodite, Arty, and Hermes made themselves at home in dog beds.

Even our main dog bed is a common resting place for the kitties as well. Here, Isley, Atlas, and Aphrodite cuddle up.

We got the pyramid-style bed in the upper right hand corner free. The cat litter we use has a rewards program. Online, we put in the code on the package and are given points. We use the points for a lot of different things. You can make donations to the ASPCA, get toys, collars, or other cat supplies, or order coupons for more cat litter. All free with the points. We used some of our reward points for this bed. We've found moving it around the house makes it more/less popular. It's not a main favorite for any of the kitties. Those things are not cheap ($30!) even when they are on sale, so it's really a nice bonus to be able to get them without having to pay for them. We actually have 2 and they are such a different thing than a normal kitty bed. They definitely get use in our house, just not as much as the other beds.

We put the beds in the areas of our house where we spent the most time. Our living room and on the desks in our office always have one or two cats in a bed. Even with lots of comfortable places to rest, sometimes kitties want to be in your lap or simply just touching some part of you. Sweet Pea climbed out of the deep green bed one evening in order to be 6 inches closer to (and therefore touching) my husband at his desk. He was working on his computer. Obviously, she was okay with that. It was a little hard to continue maneuvering his mouse, though.

To sum up, cat beds are really useful and get a lot of use in our home. We have a lot of them and love how easy they are to care for (throw 'em in the washer). We also have a couple heated beds, but those are a whole other ballgame (and price mark). I'll talk about those in a later post.

Lesson #1 - Kitties Love Curtains

As the number of cats in our house increased, so did the number of cat related items. Scratchers, cat furniture, toys, beds... The list goes on and on. We have found a lot of wonderful things to keep our kitties entertained. A lot of things that they love.

An important thing to remember, though, is that cats are going to naturally be interested in new things and in things that peak their curiosity. A lot of time, those items are not the cat-centric ones that you have purchased for them.

Pandora and Isley look like they are thinking,

"Aren't these flowers lovely to look at?"

What they are actually thinking is,

"Could you please leave the room now?

We'd like to really appreciate these."

A seasoned pet owner knows that those flowers get to move to a non-kitty area anytime a person isn't within 6 feet of them.

Sometimes, though, it isn't as easy to predict the future. For example, we have learned that when something new is added to the house, the cats will notice. Immediately. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it wasn't there before.

When I put up new curtains in our bedroom, I thought long curtains would be wonderful visually. I did not think about the cats and how my putting up such curtains would be an unspoken invitation to climb merrily to the ceiling. Nor did I think about what letting the fabric pool on the carpet would mean.

I basically made a hiding place for them to use

when they want to sneak  up on one another.

The best part of this was how stealthy Aphrodite thought she was.

Those curtains were a stressful series of major failures and minor successes long before the cats got involved. Finding ones that I liked that weren't too expensive. Ordering them. Waiting for them to ship. Finally having all the panels get here. The first time I thought my project was finished, I stepped back to admire my work and immediately noticed that something was off.

Still, it took me a minute.

Then, I think I may have cried. It took TWO months to get to this point.

So, someone had returned a panel in the wrong package. Which had then been resold to me. I had to return it and place a new order for another panel. And I really, really hated how the one set of panels had rings and the other didn't. But I bought the rings on clearance and that was all they had. I went to 5 versions of a certain chain in order to find enough to eventually do all 4 panels. When it all finally came together, my curtains were lovely. For about an hour.

It was then that I discovered that sale curtain rods may not, in fact, be able to withstand the weight of 4 curtain panels when several kitties are added to them (you know, on their way to the ceiling). The entire curtain rod came out of the wall. I didn't hear it fall. I just saw about 3 cats running at super-sonic speed from out of our bedroom, down the hall, down the stairs, into the corner of our family room behind the couch. In our world, that means there is now a scene of the crime and that they have fled said scene.

A larger, more expensive (but worth it!) curtain rod replaced this and has weathered well. Watching the cats was entertaining and hilarious, and we immediately had to erase from our minds that one hour when the curtains were beautiful. They still are quite lovely. They don't get climbed on as often (I guess the novelty wears off with time) and they are a couple inches shorter due to a good run through the washer every month.

Curtains are going to come down. So we put them up again. They're going to have little claw holes in them. They're going to get covered in cat hair. And they're going to be the a key part of some adorable, laughing-so-hard-your-stomach-hurts moments. The kitties helped me let go of my need for everything to look perfect. In doing this, they somehow made everything perfect themselves.