Cats bring so much joy to our lives and we love having them around. Just because you love your cat, though, doesn’t mean that you necessarily want your home to look like a cat lives there and cat furniture can be expensive. Do you really need cat furniture or will your cat be totally fine without it?
The answer to that questions is a resounding yes. If you’re hoping I was going to give you permission to skip the cat furniture, stick around because ultimately you are the one who will benefit from a catified home.
Cat Furniture Benefits Cats
Much like us, cats have basic biological needs like eating, drinking, sleeping, and eliminating waste. Cats also have behavioral needs that we don’t share. These needs include scratching, climbing, and murdering small creatures. It also includes variations of behaviors we share. For example, both us and cats pee, but we prefer peeing in a toilet whereas your cat prefers soft sandy material to pee in.
If your cat doesn’t have somewhere to do these behaviors or if you try to suppress them, your cat will have an unmet behavioral need. This will lead to frustration, stress, and other unpleasant feelings for your cat. Providing an environment where you cat can climb, scratch, and be a cat will help keep them in a good mood. Happy cats are well behaved cats.
Think From Your Perspective
To give you an example of why cat furniture matters, let’s think about what would happen to you if your environmental needs weren’t met using two examples. First, let’s pretend you don’t have a table to eat at. Chances are you’d just go sit on a couch or even the floor (or get one of those bizarre cereal cups), but you’d find a way to eat dinner. You’d be frustrated, though, and it may be stressful if you don’t have somewhere to comfortable sit for more than a day or two.
What If You Can’t Sleep Somewhere Comfortable?
On a more extreme example, let’s pretend that you don’t have a bed. In fact, let’s pretend you don’t even have a couch or anywhere else comfortable to sleep. You may try sleeping on the floor, but chances are it may not be comfortable even if the floor is carpeted. Sure, eventually exhaustion will take over but you may not sleep well or may wake up with aches from sleeping in a weird position.
You may end up eventually finding somewhere that’s reasonably comfortable to fall asleep because you are so desperate to get a good night sleep. Maybe you nod off on the bus or even decide to stay overnight on the couch at your office. When you’re tired, things may get weird and you may get in trouble for doing some of these things.
That’s basically what you’re forcing your cat to do if you don’t provide them with outlets for the natural cat behaviors in their environment. They’re going to find a way to meet their needs and you may not like how they do it. Speaking of which…
It Also Benefits You
Many behavior concerns that aren’t secondary to a medical problem or because you accidentally trained your cat to do them are the just the cat exhibiting a behavior that cats do naturally in a way we don’t like. Your cat doesn’t think of these behaviors as being anything other than a totally normal thing for them to do. If they don’t have somewhere to engage in normal behavior, they will find somewhere the best meets their needs. It might be your couch if they don’t have a scratching post or it may be your floor if you give them a terrible litter box.
In other words, you benefit by having a cat that behaves how you’d like them to by giving them cat furniture. You can keep them off the counters by giving them a tall cat tree (like this one that has a freakin’ swing) or adding cat shelves nearby or stop them from shredding your couch with a tall, sturdy scratching post.
Even if your cat isn’t scratching your furniture, it will still keep their stress lower if they have places to climb and be a cat. This may reduce tension between cats and aggression toward you, especially if there is a territorial component to the behavior.
Quality And Quantity Matter
Unfortunately, you can’t just head to the local pet store and pick out any piece of cat furniture. Even if you’ve decided to compromise slightly and give your cat a single tiny, flimsy, cheap scratching post, that won’t meet your cat’s needs. Cats like scratching objects that are taller and more solidly built so they may just ignore something that doesn’t meet that need. Similarly, a bigger cat tree with multiple perches is a better idea in many cases than smaller ones.
You also need to have enough cat stuff. One thing I see many homes, especially homes with multiple cats, lacking in is scratching objects. They may have a single tall post and one or two cardboard scratchers, but even for a single cat this probably isn’t enough scratching objects. Cats like having multiple options in multiple locations. You want many items in order to get the maximum benefit to your cat and you.
Go Modular
If you’re not sure exactly what your cat likes or are concerned about overdoing it, you can try modular cat furniture. Modular furniture allows you to mix and match items to add to them or rearrange them based on your cat’s preferences. You’ll learn what they like over time so you can modify these items as needed.
The Infinity Cat Tree or Transformable Cat Tree are pretty easy to set up and adjust for most folks who want to give modular furniture a try, but don’t want to put in a ton of work (no judgement!). If you want something that’s a bit more involved, but has a lot more flexibility, Omlet has a fabulous mix and match cat tree system that can be completely customized to your needs. I’ve had a few clients with this system in their homes and they are so freakin’ cool.
Either of these are great option for folks that want more flexibility than traditional cat furniture, but don’t want something custom built. You can always set up some cool cat shelves as an alternative.
Cat Furniture Doesn’t Need To Be Ugly
I hope you’re now on board with the benefits of cat furniture to all involved, including you. You need cat furniture if you have a cat. Thankfully, there are ways everyone’s needs can be met including your aesthetic preferences. You will have to make some adjustments to your home, but that’s part of having a cat. It’s unreasonable to expect your cat to adjust to your preferences without making some sacrifice yourself.
Plus, you can find all sorts of delightful tiny furniture for your cat. Just check out these adorable AND stylish kitty couches!
Trust me when I say, though, that regardless of what kind of cat furniture you get, the reward of seeing your cat’s sweet face napping away on their cozy cat tower will make it all worthwhile in the end!
