I’m kind of to the point that I think cat trees are another joke like the Snipe Hunt.
If you have any photographic evidence of your cat in a cat tree, I’d love to see it, because right now I think it is a load of bullshit.
This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads
I’m kind of to the point that I think cat trees are another joke like the Snipe Hunt.
If you have any photographic evidence of your cat in a cat tree, I’d love to see it, because right now I think it is a load of bullshit.
Comments are closed.
Jane2
Well, at the moment ragdolls Phil and Izzy are fast asleep on the bed, but I’ll forward photographic proof tomorrow. I think it helps that the trees are a) less elaborate, and b) in front of a window.
zombie rotten mcdonald
With our first cats, I designed a really simple tree, and my wife’s Dad built it (she won’t let me replace it, because her Dad built it). Both our cats loved it. When we moved, they would follow the tree wherever we would put it.
Our next cat, Toby, also loved it. We normally keep it in a bay window, so they get to enjoy the breeze, look out at the street activity, or nibble on the adjacent hanging plants.
Our newest cats, Cat Scabies and Princess Monster Truck, also love it; although PMT only goes up to the middle stand.
I would suggest moving the tree around. Perhaps Steve sees no need to seek higher elevation in that particular location.
Violet
Since he likes being close to you, maybe he’d use the cat tree if you’d get in it.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Jane2:
Yeah, Jane, ours is much less elaborate also.
Teddy Salad
Hope you kept the box. Cats always seem to like them.
leinie (iPad mini)
When AL published the story on your blog of my Hippy, the photo was him sitting in the top level of the cat tree. It is in front of a window though.
Alison
Here’s a pic of my friend’s now-passed-on kitty Woody sitting on his cat tree…though admittedly, with a look of “Okay, I’m on it, now what?”
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sKq4IiD0vnk/TbYgbJmf0xI/AAAAAAAAEhE/TFI-wn71D-o/s1600/Photo+on+2011-04-22+at+11.37.jpg
BillinGlendaleCA
@Violet: I don’t think John getting into the cat tree is a very good idea. I have visions of blog posts from the local hospital about what he broke.
esc
I have more, including one of the black one using it to brace herself while she sits up on the windowsill like a gopher.
Marcus
My kitty uses hers, but you may be inducing performance anxiety for Steve vis a vis the cat tree. Give him time to decide the best thing to do is to observe his domain from a high perch. Just don’t stand there expecting he do a trick like a dog, and climb the tree on command — Steve is a cat, through and through, and will ignore you. This book by The Oatmeal may help you understand Steve.
Mary G
Here you go.I believe this may be the same model you got, albeit in beige (wish I had seen the dark blue one) and with one fewer platform, because I left one off.
RepubAnon
Try dispensing cat treats only on one of the flat areas. If you feed them, they will go there.
It also depends on the cat – some are arboreal, others not.
burnspbesq
The Dodgers are having Hello Kitty Bobblehead Night in a couple of weeks.
Sacrilege. Chavez Ravine must be destroyed.
Punchy
I personally dont own a cat who likes trees, but the neighbor’s got some pussy that looks to be fond of bush.
Wag
Avanti has figured out how to climb to the top of the cupboards where he has his little den. I think windows are key, as he has three clerestory windows to watch the world through. He loves it up there.
Anne Laurie
Put his kibble dish on one of the shelves the dogs can’t reach — move the dish, plop Steve down next to it, and let him make up his mind.
Even if Steve refuses to use it after that (he’s a cat, they do what they like), it’ll encourage Rosie to get heathful exercise attempting to reach Mt. Kibble.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Wag:
If our kitchen had clerestories, I might camp out up there also. I love clerestories.
Jane2
@Mary G: Zombie eyes kitties! Great pic.
Mary G
@Jane2: Thanks. My cats have issues and prefer to come out only at night, so most of my photos of them have reflective eyes.
Violet
@BillinGlendaleCA: Naturally that would happen. It’ll follow some story along the lines of, “I had just made myself a fantastic sandwich–roast beef on rye with lettuce and tomato out of my garden, slathered with mustard, yes, mustard you assholes; I do have some–when I heard Rosie scratching at back door. Annoying little piglet wouldn’t come in when I’d called her earlier, so I’d left her out in the cold.
I put the sandwich on the middle level of the cat tree for safekeeping. It’s not like Steve ever uses the damn thing. Let Rosie in, went to retrieve my sandwich, only to find half of it on the floor and Lily with mustard all over her face. Where was the other half? On the top of the goddamn cat tree.
Since Steve never uses the cat tree, I’d been tossing shit up there for weeks. Somehow Steve had dragged my sandwich to the top of the precariously piled stack of books and DVDs and other crap on the top of the cat tree. I climbed onto the arm of the sofa, reached up almost to the ceiling, when the whole damn cat tree fell over on top of me.
And that’s how I ended up at the hospital at midnight. Looks like I only broke my arm and a few ribs this time. Damn cat.”
Comrade Mary
My cats loved their cat “tree” which consisted of:
1) An open cage/ladder set made of 2 x 4’s hammered together, with
2) A soft set of blankets stuffed in the middle of the cage, which was
3) Placed in front of a window
The would climb up and down, chase each other, and settle in the soft spot for a nap.
So if you were to move the tree in front of the window and get at least one more cat, I think Steve would use it.
Glad to help!
Princess Leia
@Violet: How did you do that????
Karmus
He’ll use it eventually. That is, if he decides he wants to. No guarantees. This is a cat, after all.
Jane2
@Violet: Good Lord, you’re channelling the blog master! Brilliant.
PurpleGirl
http://new.livestream.com/cassieskittenkastle/events/2246087
This is the Live Stream for Cassie’s Kitten Kastle. Right now 9 kittens are in the room — oh, you probably don’t see them. That’s because the 9 of them are sleeping on the upper levels of the cat tree. You will note that this is the same cat tree you bought.
Perhaps you should have started with something like the arch and pole with hanging balls or a simpler cat tree. Did you move it as I suggested so Steve wasn’t stymied by the end table and the lamp in climbing the cat tree?
I think he’ll still use it but it might take time.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’ve got a clip somewhere of our Stewie hanging from the head rest on my computer chair and ripping into it with his back legs. As far as a perch to climb to and sit on, the same head rest is his fav. Who needs a cat tree? All we needed was an ergonomic computer chair with some kind of indestructible fabric covering it*.
*Almost two years of his climbing and trying to shred it daily and it looks the same as the day we got it. IDKWTF it’s made of but it’s some tough fabric.
Mary G
@Violet: That’s spooky; you are channeling Cole! It’s his voice entirely. Higgs Boson’s Mate says it just needs a bowling ball; it could conk him on the head or something.
Suzanne
My in-laws’ cats love their tree, which is about as large as yours. But yes, it’s in front of a window (which they dub “the cat TV”).
My cats have a much smaller tree, and they only use it to scratch the sisal. They,don’t ever climb on it.
kc
@Violet:
Hahahahaha! Perfect.
kc
Maybe Steve is holding out for something like this.
Mnemosyne
Cat tree proof:
He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.
All of our cats have loved our cat tree, probably because it’s torn up and stinky from multiple cats. Try sprinkling it with catnip and putting toys or treats on the various levels.
MikeJ
@zombie rotten mcdonald:
Easy to identify fans of The Damned.
kc
@Mnemosyne:
Aww!!
Emerald
My kitteh uses her tree constantly except for the little house on top of it–and recently I’ve even caught her sleeping in that!
Possible solution: move the structure to a place where Steve can see and/or smell the outdoors from it.
Maine Coons love to climb, so I’m betting he’ll use it eventually. His former owners, who didn’t even bother to have him fixed, probably never gave him such a wonderful thing. He doesn’t know what it is yet.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Violet: HAHAHA, That is awesome!
MikeJ
@burnspbesq:
Hello Kitty hit .310 when she played for the Dodgers. but her slugging wasn’t all that hot.
max
@Violet: And that’s how I ended up at the hospital at midnight. Looks like I only broke my arm and a few ribs this time. Damn cat.”
{applause}
Sadly, you left out the fat that he didn’t have any pants on when this series of events occurred.
max
[‘But that wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was when I was walking out the hospital there was this damn pit bull…’]
Mnemosyne
@kc:
I can never quite decide if she’s blissed out or low on oxygen since Keaton weighs about twice as much as she does.
Violet
@Princess Leia: Far too much time reading Balloon-Juice. I hope I’m not prescient.
@Mary G: Ha! I love the bowling ball idea. Bought three years ago when the fraternity Cole sponsors tried to get a regular bowling night going. Used once. Stored on the cat tree temporarily when vacuuming earlier in the day.
phillygirl
No photographic evidence, but my cat Beezer was spotted on her $80 tree on the afternoon of March 18, 2011. So, see, amortization has begun.
max
If you have any photographic evidence of your cat in a cat tree, I’d love to see it, because right now I think it is a load of bullshit.
I have lots of pictures of cats in the cat tree (particularly Mazikeen, the sweet, adorable… and somewhat retarded rescue kitty in the cat). They are all on 35 mm being from around the turn of the century. I have a digital picture of a pet in the cat tree, but it’s a dachshund.
max
[‘Banzai the kitten had a particular fondness for the cat tree, as he liked to dive bomb his siblings from on top of it. That’s how he got his name.’]
Suzanne
@Violet: Dude. Where’s the DeLorean with the Flux Capacitor?
LesGS
My Sims 3 cats love their cat tree. My RL cat (strictly indoors) only climbs structures so he can look out windows. He is not, however, very athletic. I have friends with athletic (indoor) cats who spend a lot of time in their tree. They were over-handled by children as kittens, though, and the tree was a way to escape the kids. They don’t now choose to spend much time around humans. You may just be more attractive to Steve than the tree, John. My cat chooses to be near, though not, *on* me, for which, at his 26 (not obese!) pounds, I am grateful for.
(He does, sometimes, jump on me while I am sleeping. So I have learned to sleep with my hands and wrists placed strategically over my groin and bladder.)
jayboat
Perhaps if you climbed around on the tree he would take the hint.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: Adorable.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Violet: LMAO. You captured a Cole injury story perfectly, especially the mustard.
Earl
Fine…here ya go…
Keith P
Damn, I’ve got several pics of two of my cats in a tree my brother made, but I am having a hell of a time finding them. I’ve had 3 cats climb the tree, but one of the beds was loose, so the biggest cat only went up there once. The other two slept and played on it all the time.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Cat tree, cat tree
No one knows you but the rain and the air.
Don’t you worry
They’ll stand and stare when you’re gone.
Cat tree, cat tree
Open your eyes to another year.
They’ll all know
That you were here when you’re gone.
PurpleGirl
As others have said, it helps if the cat tree is near or in front of a window. Cassie’s cat tree is to the left of a window.
Robert P.
Our cats ignored the Monster Cat Tree for the first two weeks or so, but now (six months later) they are totally smitten with it. They need to find their way to it, in their own time. You can’t push them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsquared/sets/72157635052372342/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsquared/sets/72157635046028911/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpsquared/sets/72157635046024487/
Badtux
I do in fact have photographic evidence of my cat using a cat tree. In fact, I have a whole video of my cat using a cat tree. Of course, I put the cat tree in a place where he could use it to get up high on things — he can jump up on the fireplace mantle from there, and from the fireplace mantle he can jump up to the top of a book case — so I guess he got used to it….
Suzanne
I need some moral support. I am having a hard time studying for this exam, because it is quite literally about dirt. I keep drifting off.
PurpleGirl
@Mary G: How is Higgs doing? Nice to read his comment on Violet’s incredible channeling of our blog master.
kdaug
Dance on, Dirty Suzanne. You can do it.
Jane2
@Suzanne: Dirt. At this point, I’d be putting my limited math skills to work and figuring out just how much the exam counted toward the grade. That saved me from a world of stress when I got a different wrong answer every time I tackled the same Srandard Deviation problem.
If that doesn’t work, call on your reserves of fear. They’re usually closer to the surface within a day of the exam.
Mike G
Cats’ interest in a toy is inversely proportional to the money spent on it.
$100 cat tree = meh
Cardboard box your Amazon stuff came in = hours of fun
zombie rotten mcdonald
@MikeJ:
yes, Old skool punk. But yeah, she has a spot on her head that seems to be her most exposed part when she fights with Princess Monster Truck, and gets a scab there from time to time. We are not above mocking our Owners, here.
Suzanne
@Jane2: This is not for school, this is for my license to be an architect. If I never pass it, I can never be an architect.
They pretend it’s about “soil”, which is needlessly high-falutin’. It’s dirt. Dirt dirt dirt.
Justin
I got your dual-use cat tree right here… in dual use.
She who is my wife says “Move it by a window.” They loll and gaze, fetchingly.
Try spreading catnip on it. A drug den is a drug den.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
Don’t soil yourself.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Mike G:
I think this is true also. As I said, our cat tree is home designed, made, and even the carpet is remnants so the only expense was the gas to go pick it up once it was done.
And Bob did a hell of a job building it, too, lasting through one move and five cats (so far).
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Soiling myself would at least be interesting.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: Dirt’s important, you can build on it, you can build with it.
ETA: Or you could build under it. In each case the type of dirt or ‘soil’ is probably important.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
If I never pass it, I can never be an architect.
Speaking as one, having lived through Reagan’s attempt to kill the profession and the banking industries’ mostly successful attempt, I cannot stress that there are worse fates.
If you are successful, you will have the pleasure of one of the only professions people still look up to. Of course, banks don’t take respect deposits. And you can listen to people explaining to you, in many different and entertaining ways, why you should work for free.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
One of my favorite stories about the hell that is this profession, is one day I had a young lady from teh local School of Baby Architects on a tagalong day. Which we started with a 2 1/2 hour meeting with civil engineers to discuss drainage and cut/fill of a 22 acre site.
I think she started investigating alternative career paths the next day.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
They pretend it’s about “soil”, which is needlessly high-falutin’. It’s dirt. Dirt dirt dirt.
Protip: Clients object to paying for dirt. It has to be listed as “soil” on the invoice.
Robert
My neighbor’s cats use their tree. One just likes to lay on top because it guarantees him love and attention at perfect scratching level. The other is a lunatic who uses it as a strong hold to attack anyone who comes near it.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I spent a fair amount of time learning about how to design Earth Shelters. It’s a good way to guard against zombie attacks.
ummm….I mean, it’s a bad idea. BAD BAD BAD idea.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I know.
Of course, right now, I do all the architect work and don’t even get the respect.
But the other alternatives suck way harder. Until someone decides to pay me for taking epic naps, I’ll stick with architorture.
zombie rotten mcdonald
moral of this comment thread: have an architect design your cat tree. Call Suzanne first; she’ll be grateful that it doesn’t involve SOIL.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
Heh. Back in the old days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had to take the licensing exam IN PERSON. 3 consecutive 10 hour days of tests, culminating in a fourth, 12 hour design test. Done by HAND. With our own blood.
kids. Hmpf.
MikeJ
Is Suzanne’s test about what the queers are doing to the soil?
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I used to be in graphic design. People REALLY don’t want to pay for that. They think you’re just sitting around, DYING to Comic Sans all over their business card. My clients now are profligate in comparison.
Of course, we have had meetings about door hardware that would drive a weaker person to the bottle.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Now it’s seven exams with a CAD program straight out of 1994. We all die a little every day.
Badtux
Hmm, there may be a point to the notion that a cat’s interest in a cat toy is inversely related to the amount of money spent on it. I got the cat tree in my living room off of FreeCycle for, well, free. And The Mighty Fang regularly sleeps atop it. Related? I report, you decide :).
zombie rotten mcdonald
@MikeJ:
Do I know you? Do you live in Yonkers?
ruemara
You’re just doing it wrong, Cole. I have tons of proof of kitty adoration of their cat tree. All of them.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
Of course, we have had meetings about door hardware that would drive a weaker person to the bottle.
HOLY FUCK DO I HATE DOOR SCHEDULES.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I hate dirt. I mean SOIL.
You know what I really hate? Finishes. Just pick some fucking carpet. I don’t give a fuck. And the friggin’ ex-cheerleaders who rep that shit REALLY annoy me. No, you are not my best friend. YES I will take your Paradise Bakery cookies.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
They think you’re just sitting around, DYING to Comic Sans all over their business card.
What, you haven’t run across clients who have a handful of magazine clippings, or a sketch on graph paper to no particular scale, saying that they just need you to ‘draw it up’ and that there’s no need for all that ‘design stuff’?
I now have gotten to the point that I give them two proposals: one that starts with their preconceptions, and then makes them work with building codes and reality, and one that lets me design to their needs.
Yeah, it’s harsh and egotistical, but it’s the same as those placards in the repair garage that calls for mechanic time as 50 bucks an hour, 75 bucks if you watch and 100 bucks if you help.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I work for a fairly prominent firm, so our clients know the deal. But I will never do residential or any shitty little TIs for that reason.
Though when I told one client that what the project now entailed exceeded our original proposal, he winked at me and said, “Baby needs a new pair of shoes!” I successfully did not punch him and for that I deserve a medal.
Debbie(aussie)
@Violet: Wow! That was great.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
You know what I really hate? Finishes. Just pick some fucking carpet.
I like ’em, actually. I like messing with colors and materials and lighting. to me, it’s one of the most important ways that users interact with a building. Yeah, I get what you’re saying, it’s easy to get insane about it, with wall coverings imported from Japan and stuff. I took some heat in archy school for being concerned about ‘interior desecration” but folks, it’s part of building design and being condescending about it really doesn’t help you achieve your design intent; and making everything shades of grey isn’t really a solution…
I have gotten some of my repeat clients to work up to commercial grade carpets and high quality flooring in commodity-level projects, because I have shown them that the better life cycle is worth it, and also shown them that good interiors help make their buildings more successful.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
But I will never do residential or any shitty little TIs for that reason.
Yeah, I started a firm with two “friends” who tossed me as soon as they could, and then went out on my own. Didn’t quite make escape velocity, so after downsizing, I am flying mostly solo, with a couple of cowboys I bring in for concerted efforts. So I take ’em when I can get ’em.
I like residential, though. It’s fun. I have one client, I’ve done his house three times now.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I like real materials, like steel and rammed earth and raw silk and concrete and wood and dichroic glass. 87 varieties of shit that goes on gyp board, however, I can do without.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
he winked at me and said, “Baby needs a new pair of shoes!” I successfully did not punch him and for that I deserve a medal.
As an Owner/Practitioner, I would have the option of firing that fucking client.
Suzanne
@zombie rotten mcdonald: I have to admit, I spent as much of his money as I could get away with.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
Yep. I once did a coffee shop interior where the benches and interiors were industrial, including three broken concrete pedestals and rusted steel table supports. the pedestals were a couple of thousand pounds each, and when the coffee shop morphed into an alternative clothing store, they couldn’t afford to remove the concrete, and worked around it.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
I have to admit, I spent as much of his money as I could get away with.
Well, I actually tell my clients that I am going to do that.
They laugh, but I follow up with my discussion of life cycle costing, and the short-term effect of building cheap.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@Suzanne:
87 varieties of shit that goes on gyp board, however, I can do without.
yeah. also, the forty thousand versions of wall coverings. Dammit, Pallas, I throw your packages out without even opening them. If I get into a situation where I need wall coverings, I….reconsider my design.
J R in WV
@Mnemosyne:
This!! Tie little bundles of catnip at each level of the structure, while you can get it fresh, or sprinkle dry bits into the flat parts.
But it has to be by a window.
zombie rotten mcdonald
Well, Soilzanne, I think we derailed this cat thread. I feel Steve would approve, because otherwise we would have been talking about his shunning of the Cat Pole.
zombie rotten mcdonald
FWIW, Cat Scabies camped out on the top of the cat tree when I was doing window details earlier, and is now full sleep.
Batocchio
I don’t have photos, but I knew a cat who loved his cat tree. (He was a heavy fella, too.)
slag
My cats use their cat tree. But we just call it the staircase. Personally, I think cat trees are more for the cat people than the cats. Unless you live in a monastery cell, your home probably has enough places for your cat to climb, if your cat is a climber.
NotMax
Mr. Cole, should you happen to something like an old flannel shirt that’s going to the rag bin anyway, wear it for a day then cut small swatches and place them in the nooks of the unit.
zombie rotten mcdonald
When I was in college, my room mate and I adopted two kits from a batch, and in our apartment, I rigged up a climbing pole with a couple of platforms, pretty rudimentary really.
My room mate moved out, and took the cats. but one of my friends, who adopted one of the same cats from the same litter, couldn’t keep him any more, and so I took him in. He had spent his life in a small, small apartment and watching him try to climb the cat pole was, frankly hilarious.
so, as far as I can tell, having a dedicated climbing/entertainment center actually does benefit our feline overlords.
PurpleGirl
@Suzanne: What do you use dichroic glass for? I’ve made jewelry with prefabricated beads or carbochons of dichroic glass. I love the stuff.
Linda
Is it by a window? Cats like that. Also, it helps for the tree to not move around or sway when they move in it. For that reason, big guys like Steve might not like a tree. When I had a big tree, and my cats were younger, they sat in it all they time. Since they got older, I’ve got smaller stands close to the ground for them.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I’ll chime in with another vote for putting it next to a window. We have two huge cat trees occupying a bay window now, having replaced two smaller ones, and all four cats took to the trees immediately.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Suzanne: My soils professor would have docked you points for saying that. You find dirt in shower scenes like the one in Starship Troopers. Soil is an engineering material, just like wood and steel and concrete.
He really liked that shower scene.
Arachnae
Steve won’t use the cat tree because he’s an only cat. if there were other cats in the house, Steve would find it imperative to be higher up than them.
black onion
Both of my cats love their tree, which is 6 feet tall and beige, from Petsmart or some such. Chloe loves to get on the top and lay there, watching the ceiling fan.
https://sphotos-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/264337_1822276993033_2499880_n.jpg
manyakitty
@Suzanne: Dirt is awesome. Tis made of many things. Where would we be without it?
Calming Influence
ProTIp: Scratch the tree up a little bit (loose threads; scratch it with a fork, or hang pieces of string on it) and put it in a common area where the cats will notice it (you can move it later — once it’s theirs, they’ll find it). Scratched and disheveled is a minor territorial signal; shredded bark on a tree, dug-up grass, etc. gets their attention. Cats will be much more likely to view the cat tree as desirable if they think some other cat wants it. Once they see it as an opportunity for catrobatics they’ll never get off of it.
p.a.
Since Steve follows you around like a puppy, carry the cat tree with you ;-P
HeartlandLiberal
Our cats have loved the three story tree we set up for them. The yellow one loves to scramble to top platform and doze, or lay his head on the edge of the box and stare out the blinds of the French windows to watch birds scrounging for seed fallen from the bird feeder on the top balcony outside the bedroom; or the chipmunk who lives under the wooden platform outside the door, who comes out and stands there and stares at the cat inside the house.
gogol's wife
Ha Ha Ha. My cats never touch anything that’s designed specifically for cats. It’s beneath their dignity.
folkbum
Serious suggestion, John: Stand next to the cat tree and make a phone call. My cats love to bother me whenever I’m on the phone, so I make all my calls standing up and walking around to avoid them. When I’m talking by the cat tree, they will climb right up to eye level with me.
They use the cat tree other times, too, but that might work to get Steve up on the tree once of his own volition.
Mino
@Violet: My thought exactly. How can he use the tree when he’s always in the lap?
Paul in KY
My cousins built a beautiful cat tree (bigger than yours, I think) for their kittens & they use it, live on it, sleep in it, etc. I have seen this with my own two eyes.
It can be done.
BTW, I edited this comment to include this line. 1st time I have been able to edit a comment since the latest redesign!
Paul in KY
Cousin’s cat tree in front of huge window.
greylocks
Put it by a window. They won’t use it unless there’s something for them to look at other than a corner wall.
Juju
I have a dog, and she doesn’t use a cat tree. I don’t think that helps, but it’s all I have.
NickT
You know nothing, John
SnowCole.Ron
both our cats like the tree, though our younger cat uses it more. I agree with the comment that it helps to have it near a window.
ellie
I will send you a photo of my giant Maine Coon stuffed into the cat tree as soon as he gets back in it. He was in it all day yesterday but now he is at the bottom of the steps, eyeing me suspiciously.
mike
Late to the thread, but two of our three cats love our tower. The third scratches on the lower legs but won’t otherwise got on it, which works for us, because he’s bigger than the other two cats and it provides a getaway for them.
Something that helps is having it where stuff goes on with a view to multiple rooms (or a window). We have ours near the front door, near the exit to the garage, and where they can watch the livingroom and look down a hall into the kitchen.
But yeah, some cats just don’t much want to climb.
Lawrence
Drape some of your dirty laundry on the thing. If it smells like you Steve may take to it.
schrodinger's cat
Is the tree in the same location it was when you posted the picture? If so, try moving it where it is not so close to stuff he can knock off trying to climb it. Also too, position it near a window if you can.
Tata
My tiny black cats use their cat tree to stage their favorite practical joke. I’ll be tearing apart the house to find a missing cat, look straight at the tree and seeing nobody, then see the cat go from Invisible to Full Kitty Visible. That is a strange feeling.
lojasmo
Nope. We had two cats and a tree, and I never saw a cat on that fucking thing…ever.
Birthmarker
I once sat through a 45 minute meeting discussing the merits of peach over pink. When the event was over one of the perpetrators actually said, “The flowers were more pink than I wanted them to be.”
Shoot me now.
Jay C
So, John, did you think I (and the numerous other commenters who made the same point) were kidding when I mentioned the inverse cost/usage formula for cat trees? At least today’s thread clarifies the system just a bit: cats will either use the tree, or they won’t. And for cats, that’s about as precise, I think, as one can ever get…
Try shoving together a couple of milk crates/cardboard boxes, flop an old bathmat on the top, and sprinkle liberally with catnip. You probably won’t be able to get the big guy down from it….
LongHairedWeirdo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kightp/sets/72157633414853291/.
Alas, poor William (*not* Bill. In fact, his name was more informally “Way Out Willy” for reasons that have nothing to do with genitalia and everything to do with his ability to do that crazy hand jive) (in the green collar) seems to have been born with a bum heart and died Sunday before last.
So I’m looking for another young cat to be a playmate to Leo.
(They’re littermates. You needed me to tell you this, right? Because they’re so different looking!)
Paul in KY
@LongHairedWeirdo: Very sorry to hear that. Best of luck, although I’m dure you’ll be able to find one that will fit the bill.
EmmATX
Millionth-ing the suggestion to put it near a window. I have a two story tree that my cat ignored for the first few months I had it. Putting catnip, or his toys, on it had no effect at all. Then I moved it next to the foot of my bed (right next to a window), and within a week or so he was using the first story, so he was right by the foot of the bed. A few months after that he discovered that he liked to hang out on the second story, too.
Shorter: move it by a window and give it time!
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
My two cats used their tree but I got them very, very young so maybe that’s it. If they didn’t have one from an early age, maybe they don’t warm to it……?
Even my very large, very fat and delightfully stupid Calico used the darn thing. There was absolutely nothing funnier than watching her try to get on/off it. She acted like she was leaning off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
One portion of it was this platform up on a pole, you know how they make these kitty trees…..Well, one day she was sitting on top of it and started going round and round chasing her tail. Of course, she lost her balance and fell off. She reacted quickly enough to grab onto the platform with her front paws but her back end was dangling in the air. I will never forget the look of abject horror on her face as if she thought she was going to fall into some bottomless abyss. She swung her bottom legs to push up against the post underneath the platform but the angle was wrong so she just couldn’t make it. After a brief struggle (I did mention that she was fat, right?) she couldn’t hold on any more and her expression was just priceless. You know that look you see people in the movies get as their last fingertip slips off a cliff/rope/hand…when their imminent death sinks in and they eyes widen in terror and their mouth opens to scream? That’s what she did. She stretched her body as long as possible, maybe in the hopes of shortening the distance to the ground. And lo and behold, her back paws touched something. She seemed startled and looked down to confirm that she had indeed landed without dying. It was at that moment that she remembered that the platform was only 2 and half feet off the ground and her body was at least that long, if not longer. I started laughing and she stalked away as if to preserve what was left of her dignity. I laughed until I got the hiccups.
Central Planning
We don’t have a fake cat tree. We have real outdoor trees that the cat climbs.
Apparently the cat also walks along the top of our backyard fence on the 5/8″ wide slats. That information is questionable since it came from my 16YO
Death Panel Truck
You do know there really is a snipe, right?
Gus
@Death Panel Truck: I actually used to hunt them, too. They’re a bitch to hit, with a very erratic flight pattern. People tend to think I’m bullshitting them when I say I used to snipe hunt.
EthylEster
@Jane2: yeah, mine is pretty modest also and it does have a great view of the outdoors. but gilbert doesn’t spend a lot of time in it. i am always surprised when i see him there.
but maybe that’s because he was a PAWS cat and was 6 when i adopted him.
Matt McIrvin
He’s not my cat, but here’s an old picture of my father-in-law’s cat Phoenix using one:
http://mmcirvin.livejournal.com/pics/catalog/626/10300
Jake Olbert
My cat loves his tree. We found out he might be inclined to use it because whenever we had the ladder up to do work in the apartment, he would climb up and sit on the top rungs. He loves to sit at the top and writhe around and get you to pet him, at which point he will viciously attack your hand. (He’s a sweetheart.)
Moe Gamble
Put it by a window, preferably one that looks out at a space with lots of birds.
Silver & Silkey
Photographic proof of Three (3!) cats on their cat tree just sent to JCole’s e-mail. I couldn’t get the .tiff image to move to this comment block.
Hope Cole sees it, as the three are magnificent kittehs.
Silver & Silkey
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Princess Monster Truck uh…ok, each to his own poison.
Cat Scabies ? What is the matter with you? What contempt for a poor kitteh.
jayackroyd
Cat in Condo
My sister is the cat lover in our family. I like cats fine, they like me. But I only have dog pictures in house. Hence the delay.
pianoguy
This is from a couple of years ago, but Merlin and Matchka (pictured) are on the cat tower every day.
(Matchka has long since torn down the little hanging ball …)
Our old cat Lucy would never have gone near a cat tree, however – she mistrusted anything that seemed to have been done with her in mind.
dianne myers
i know my cats adore their cat tree. It gives them a safe place to sleep away the daylight hours especially if placed in front of a sunny window. Adding a little catnip to it will also work. Some cats are a little antsy around strange looking objects or if it has been moved around alot they will avoid it for awhile. I have a wonderful website that sells all manner of cat trees and other cat furniture. Cats love my cat trees!