Keeping house with cats
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When a person walks into our home, they do not notice we have cats, unless a few happen to be draped across the parlor furniture.
Hard not to notice the “decorative cat”
Friends with allergies to cats often comment that they are not afflicted when they visit us, even though we have a high feline to square foot ratio. Despite the dubious distinction of being the local “Crazy cat lady” my house does not smell like a litterbox. In fact, our house has been open for tours several times, cats and all.
One might convincingly argue that this makes me a bit of an expert on housekeeping with cats. My husband would argue that no matter how she smells, the cat lady is still crazy.
Protecting your furniture, keeping your sanity
Pick your battles.
Realistically you can’t keep your cat off every piece of furniture, relegating her to the floor only. If this is your goal, find a good home for that poor animal at once and get a hamster.
a glass topper prevents damage to the antique table and doily underneath
It is not unreasonable to expect that the cat will have a certain favorite chair to sleep in. Often it will be your own chair, which smells like you and thus has the most appeal to the cat.
I will not hypothesize about why the cat might want to curl up on something that smells like your ass.
The trick here is to protect something that is difficult to wash with something that is easy to wash. Slipcovers are an obvious solution here. Cheaper alternatives are throws, beach towels, or tarps (just kidding).
A strategically placed throw protects this tweed chair
Choose furnishings wisely
Cat hairs are clingy. They like microsuede, tweed, corduroy and velvet. They slip right off of things like leather and indoor/outdoor fabric. Dander can really pile up in carpets. Wood floors show dust and hair much better, encouraging you to clean them more frequently.
Choose your weapons
If you absolutely can’t have the cat on a certain piece of furniture, hide nearby with a squirt gun.
This is the perfect time to deploy the squirt gun
Cats hate loud noises. Booby trap the counter or table with something that will make a lot of noise as it clatters to the ground when they try to leap there.
Cats also hate sticky things on their paws. Lay a few strips of masking tape sticky-side up on the surfaces you want to protect. The results of this are usually effective and always humorous. Have a camcorder ready to film as hi-jinks ensue.
Give them things they can climb and lay on
A cat will try to cram itself into the tiniest of baskets
Leave empty grocery bags around behind the couch, or in the kitchen. Cut the edges off a cardboard box, leaving it where you find it acceptable for the cat to be.
These cats stayed off the jigsaw puzzle because they had their own box to sleep in
They will like these better than the expensive cat beds and climbing posts. While they are just as ugly as those carpet covered monstrosities available at PetSmart, boxes and bags have the added benefit of being disposable and cheap.
The cats are allowed to lounge on this cushion- it can be cleaned with a power washer!
Outdoor patio furniture and indoor/outdoor rugs can be very attractive, and also hosed off in the car wash if necessary. These are great for homes with dogs, cats, gross little kids, and husbands who leave easily-spilled beer bottles open on the edge of tables.
Two non-hideous cat structures that would still clash with my Victorian decor
Obviously giving them easily cleaned areas of their very own to lounge about on is the best answer, if you have the room and the money. Modern Feline has a lot of beautiful classy designs that elevate cat furniture to a level of chic above and beyond the budget of most.
The Litter Box
Many experts advocate having one box per cat. This is fine if you have just two, and they each stick to using their very own box. Anyone who has ever tried this knows different. There is always ALWAYS one cat who is territorial and will go out of his way to crap in both boxes.
More boxes mean more scooping, more tracking, more places to generate odor. If you have 7 cats like we do this means all available floor space would be covered with gritty turd-filled room fresheners!
What not to feed your cat
If you want to control what comes out of your cat, control what goes in. This means not leaving a full bowl of kibble out for it to nibble on all day. Cats have a very short alimentary canal. After they eat they will need to crap within the hour. If you don’t want this going on all day long, feed them twice a day only. They are also less likely to grow overweight. (Please be sure they have access to clean water all day though!)
Scent marking with the face is far more preferable to humans than using the other end, as this outside cat has learned
We have one litter box. ONE. It is scooped twice a day. The contents are taken immediately outdoors to the trash can. If there is a cat that does not like to use the box for whatever reason, he may go outside to do his business. If he is not consistent with asking to go out, then he becomes an outside cat.
What to put in the box
The vile smell of just one uncovered cat turd is enough to cause sheer madness!
Clumping litter will allow you to scoop out urine solids which are a big component of the bad smell. Litter in “multiple cat” strength controls odors better, even if you only have one cat. Many cats, especially long-haired cats, are not fond of it. It tracks more easily than plain clay, but the stench control is worth the trade off.
What your litter box will never smell like, despite what advertisers claim
Those fresh pine litters smell nice (until they are saturated with pee- then they smell fetid), but they track horribly, are dusty, and they are expensive.
We use Tidy Cat clumping litter. Here is a very good article by a breeder who uses the same product. Be sure to read it if you are looking for litter for kittens or special-needs cats.
You can try a mixture of inexpensive topsoil or potting soil and sand. This can work wonders if you have a pet who prefers crapping in the potted plants. It is as cheap as regular litter.
Really, what you put in the box is not as important as what you take out. Keep it scooped!
All photos featuring living cats by Morgan Williams
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MH what a great article,I really enjoy your humor and sense of irony,and your obvious love for the creatures roaming your home,both 2 and 4 legged.Fun to read and the tape and short canal tips will be put to use with chico and Dulce.Thanks!
Very nice home and a lovely cat collection. Very nice all around.
We have four of them that share one litter box too, all inside cats except for wandering outside when I’m there watching them. That gets cleaned at least twice a day, same way you guys do it. They have their own room, with a climbing atrocity, but now I have seen some of these new ones, ours is going to be donated to the shelter here and I am getting a new tree that will fit better with my style. Thanks for that link. We use throw blankies for ours too and the little one carries his around with him sometimes. He will, once in a while, give it up for the dog to share, not often though.
My youngest cat, loves to be in boxes of any kind. Beer boxes, soda boxes whatever, he will lay in those with a jingle ball and play, till he wants to be picked up and petted.
The mental picture of the kitteh dragging a security blanket around- SOOOO cute! (I had you in mind when I posted that link- glad you liked it. None of the rest of us could afford those cat trees that is for sure!)
They weren’t that much more than what I paid for the one we already have actually. There were a couple I really liked and could definitely see them in the house, almost like sculptures. Bracketless shelf looking climbers, really nice with the sisal rope, could be either attached to the wall or just leaning against.
The kitty in the roses is just too, too much! They are all beautiful, as is your home, Mother Hen! There are four kitties living here and we’re not quite as diligent as you are, but we do OK. Your tips are all good ones; it’s so true that the essential ingredient is keeping the cleaning effort constant…
It is really a constant effort when they are all inside 100% of the time- like now with this horrid blizzard just dumping 20″ of snow, and 10″ more expected tomorrow. They are not interested in outside time right now!
The white kitty is so photogenic- she literally poses when she sees the camera, dominating photo shoots with her come-hither cuteness!
We have 3 indoor cats, in a tiny, tiny house. We lost 8 leather dining chairs to the 2 youngest, despite squirt guns & aluminum foil ‘coverlets’ (very unattractive, & the dumb one found foil edible, if not digestible). We have hardwood floors & throw rugs, which we vacuum twice/week. It’s a small house. We also have a magic “Pet Hair Magnet” that leaves no hair behind. It looks like a squeegee. Checkit!
http://www.vitacost.com/Petmate-Pet-Hair-Magnet/?csrc=GPF-029695260384&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=029695260384
We have the benefit of having a very large yard, though in town, so our cats get to go in and out lessening the hair factor.
Kudos for not declawing your cats (I’m assuming their marking is what eventually led to the demise of your leather furniture?). Of course if they are declawed, they have to remain house cats forever.
What a lovely, extraordinary home you have! No litter box smell? A miracle of fastidiousness! You must be superpower domestic engineer! or Goddess. 🙂 enjoyed the article too.
Omahwalkan, she is both! With the additional talent of putting up with me.
Really great pictures, MotherHen!