Back in the saddle again, for the third night in a row:
Earlier today, he was on the top tier, which is about six feet tall, and I beamed with pride as if I had had a daughter who looked at me an uttered her first words, and they were “Dada!”
Well, maybe that was a little over the top, but I am still super stoked that my benevolent dictator appreciates the towers we have erected in his honor.
Although in complete fairness, this is not my first cat, so I should have just bought a 3-4 foot stepladder and put a cardboard box on top of it. All this celebration seems stupid with that in mind.
piratedan
it allows the king to properly survey his kingdom, ‘natch. Glad your new feline is bringing you such Joy JC.
Yatsuno
GO STEVEKITTEH!!!
Title rocks. Also. Too.
Suzanne
John Cole: curmudgeon from birth.
Violet
Is Steve cold? Is that why he’s finally using the cat tower? Heat rises plus encloses spaces = warmer.
YellowJournalism
Cole, I need to borrow Steve. There’s a motherfucking mouse in my motherfucking living room. We got him trapped behind the TV stand. My poor dog is poised for go-time but she’s too sweet to do more than chase it.
You think Steve would enjoy a vacation up North?
fidelio
Mine are giving me the look that says “So, other cats get purpose-built cat towers, while we have to make do with climbing the bookcases and knocking things off…”
The Dangerman
Could be Steve is just a Spicoli at heart; with enough catnip for an entire neighborhood of felines, Steve is just West Virginia Wasted.
? Martin
We need to pitch in and buy Cole a Lytro camera so we can focus these photos after he takes them. It’s kind of amazing that he has the computational power of the entirety of the 1970s in his camera and he can’t even accidentally crank out a focused picture.
But keep ’em coming. Nobody worth listening to minds pictures of the critters, focused or otherwise.
max
Well, maybe that was a little over the top, but I am still super stoked that my benevolent dictator appreciates the towers we have erected in his honor.
All you had to do was be patient. Sometimes a cat won’t adapt to a given piece of cat furniture, but it depends on the cat. And patience.
Had a round footstool-lookin’ piece of cat furniture. Not one of four cats used it for like a year. Then one of the cats discovered it, and decided that she wanted to sleep in it anytime she was in that area of the house. And by anytime I meant every day for hours on end for years on end.
max
[‘At which point it was pretty ratty looking, but I couldn’t get rid of it.’]
Comrade Mary
Steve is so majestic. He deserves that tower and all our adulation.
Speaking of ladders: they can work for a properly motivated cat, even when no box is available.
kc
I’m glad he likes it, even though it apparently took a BALE of catnip to lure him up there . . .
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
FWIW, I never gave up hoping from afar that Steve would one day assume his rightful place atop his pedestal. My own Peter Kitty, who is perfectly lovely but dumber than a bag of broken hammers, finally learned to use his designated scratching apparatus after a YEAR of coaxing, just in time to save the carpet on the stairs from total ruin.
And can anyone explain why a slightly elaborated cardboard box with a corrugated bit and a picture of a cat costs nearly as much as the carpet on the stairs?
jl
Cat tower blogging might be a growth niche. I’d say go with it.
Now, who wants a Steve-up-on-the-cat-tower live cam?
I do.
BTW, what is all that crud all over the cat tower? Nip? Cole coat the damn thing in nip? No wonder Steve likes it.
That didn’t work with the TunchForce?
MikeJ
@? Martin: I’m pretty sure his biggest problem is lighting. Better lighting will allow faster shutter speeds and less blurryness.
Suzanne
@jl: Seriously. That cat is so stoned he’s probably ordering some Super Nachos from the Filiberto’s drive-thru as I type.
NotMax
The day will come when he suddenly decides what a lark it would be to launch from the top straight onto Mr. Cole’s lap, claws at full extension.
Suzanne
@MikeJ: I think some new occasional tables would help with that, too. I think the Nagel-ness of the furniture contributes to the blurriness.
Joshua Norton
Mongo like kitty.
Bill E Pilgrim
Yes but then its picture might end up at this place.
I love that site.
There, I Fixed It.
Felonius Monk
It shall forever more be known as the Tower of Steve.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
Best blog post title evar. Upraised devil-horn signs all around!
wasabi gasp
These cat tree photos would have a little more zing if you slipped into a bikini and displayed the tree like a price is right vacation package to Tahiti.
YellowJournalism
@wasabi gasp: String bikini, of course.
PurpleGirl
@max: Oh, a cat cave. Several of the kitten cams have a cat cave or a 2 or 3 level one. Some kittens find them right away and some don’t, but when they finally realize what they are, they love them.
BillinGlendaleCA
@YellowJournalism: If it’s Tahiti, you don’t need a bikini top then.
wasabi gasp
@YellowJournalism: John could pull it off.
Il Genio – Tahiti Tahiti
TheMightyTrowel
Ugh. I want a cat so badly. Landlord says no. Boo!
In other news, i just heard i’ve been nominated for a university wide teaching award. Woo!
Ash Can
Keep posting the pictures. I for one have a cast-iron stomach for Steverino pix! (Or is that a “cat-iron” stomach? Either way, it works!)
Ash Can
And P.S., fluffy kitty looks so very huggable! :)
wasabi gasp
@TheMightyTrowel: I so badly have a cat. My award needs to be a new couch.
Marietta Fafouti – Don’t Stop
TriassicSands
Or (better) you could have spent a few dollars at a lumber yard and spent a little time constructing your own cat tower.
I did that 12 years ago and they are still using it every day. I’ve had to replace the carpet on the different levels a few times over the years, but it’s still going strong.
Perhaps the key to the success of this particular cat tower was my construction of a triangular shelf in the corner of the room. I put a two cat bed up there and they sleep in it every night. The only way to get to the shelf is up the tower. (In fairness, they use the tower for more than a way to reach their bed.) I spent a fraction of what a comparable store bought tower would cost and I can’t imagine the last decade plus without it.
linda
@YellowJournalism: As long as it’s a hunting vacation, why not?
wasabi gasp
@TheMightyTrowel: …aaaaand I got your ugh right here. Just cleaned up a gravy boat worth of cat puke.
Ive Mendes – I Don’t Wanna Know
fuckwit
That post title is so long it could be a Panic! At The Disco song title.
fuckwit
@Felonius Monk: Could have been worse, it could have been called “Freedom Tower”
PurpleGirl
@TriassicSands: Are you serious? Telling Cole to build something, as in hit a nail with a hammer or drill a screw hole? Use a stapler on carpet pieces? Telling Mr. Fumbler to put parts of his body in the way of things that could hurt it? Seriously?
WereBear
Tristan got so excited over a new toy he overshot his cat tower. Bit of a fright.
Tristan has a scare.
Spent a lot of time in his Thinkin’ Place in the hallway, but made a full recovery.
sparrow
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: True story: my dad works at a box company (for a while in the design department – you know, cramming 50 parts into the smallest box possible). Anyway, my mom has a lot of cats, and he was irate when she bought one of those corrugated “couch” scratcher things for something like $40. He went to work the next day and made one for about a dollar.
gogol's wife
My cat Sasha is sitting behind me mewing so that I will pet and adore her, and I’m too caught up in reading about Steve. Better turn around now.
Joy in FL
I love the cat tower. If I were a cat, that is the kind of playground I would appreciate.
Steve is awesome.
I love Rosie and Lily, too.
and my own cat and dog
and any animal pretty much.
Pogonip
Who took the picture? I know it wasn’t Cole because the cat shows up clearly.
Johannes
The Tao of Steve is strong this week…
gbear
@fuckwit: Or a new Neco Case album.
I’m in kind of a cat dilemma. About 8 months ago I adopted a six year old male cat to keep my 13 year old female cat company. The male cat it incredibly friendly and a snuggler, but my older cat can’t stand him and won’t have anything to do with him (there was a short window where it seemed like they’d get along, but it only lasted about a month).
The male cat wants to spend all his time with me, to the point where he gets upset if I spend time with the older cat (who’s always been pretty independent). When I’m sleeping, the new cat guards the room and won’t let the older cat sleep on the bed, even though the new cat doesn’t sleep on the bed (he hates my CPAP mask).
Last night I woke up when the older cat slipped through and got onto the bed, but within a minute she had been chased off.
I’m thinking that the younger cat is going to have to go back to the adoption shelter. He’s got a personality that will get him into a new home within a week or two, and my older cat is becoming a nervous wreck who spends her days under the dining room table because she gets pestered anywhere else.
I’m feeling bad that I can’t seem to find a solution to the problem, and guilty that I’m thinking about giving up the younger cat. I’m not sure what to do and nothing I’ve tried seems to improve things.
Bob In Portland
In my cat days my old Arabella would not go near her combined tower/tunnel thingie. She never ever reached the top platform, so I used it as a little table on the side of my chair. I put treats in the tunnel so that she eventually got there and would use the tunnel as a means for getting onto my lap. We were happy.
JustRuss
@gbear: I think young cat has to go. We had a somewhat similar situation, eventually the younger cat passed away, the older cat had about 4 years of being undisputed queen of the house before she went, and she loved every minute of it.
Our cats mostly ignored each other so keeping both worked out OK, but it doesn’t seem to be working for you
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@gbear:
Our cats (mostly) get along, but we’ve always said that we operate on a strict seniority system — last cat in is the first one who goes if there’s a problem.
Would it make you feel less guilty to canvass your friends and acquaintances first to see if one of them is looking for a cat before returning him to the rescue org? Knowing his next home can make it a little less guilt-inducing.
gbear
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Everyone I know either doesn’t want a cat or already has too many. The shelter I got him from screens applicants pretty well and charges about $70 for the adoption, so I can be fairly certain that a new owner wants him and can afford to care for him. Part of my adoption ‘contract’ stipulates that if I need to give up the cat, I should bring him back to the shelter.
At this point, almost any house would be better for him than mine. He’s bored with only one old human (who likes him a lot) and a cat who doesn’t want to know him.
kc
@gbear:
I think the solution is moar cats.
No, really.
gbear
@JustRuss: I’m also thinking that older cat Halley needs to be queen of the house again.
@kc: I don’t think moar cats would be a good solution for my oldest cat.
Another Holocene Human
@TriassicSands: Wayfair has relatively inexpensive cat towers with free shipping (yes, you must do some assembly). After watching a few eps of Cat from Hell I realized that I’d totally forgotten my original plan to make an IKEA cat tower (well, shit wasn’t working the way it was supposed to… typical) and hadn’t supplied anything in its place. This way, the cat can peer down at our dinner from a safe distance instead of ankle biting.
gbear
Long dead thread, but if anyone checks back, I made an appointment to take my younger cat back to the adoption center. I couldn’t get an appointment until 12/14 so I have 2.5 weeks to try to correct the behavior or maybe find him a new home w/o going back to the shelter. At worst, Halley will have to put up with another 2.5 weeks of pestering.
mclaren
That’s astounding. Given a choice twixt a cardboard box and a $200 cat tower, no cat ever uses the tower.
What did you do, tase the cat to get it up there?