The idea of designing for cats is to get inside the feline psyche and figure out what changes you can make to your house to keep kitty happy. Now, I’m not a professional cat psychologist, (although if you are, email me!), but I think most cat owners would agree that cats really like being up. Up trees, up on your shoulders, up on top of wardrobes, or up on shelves.

Thanks jiva.

A simple way to provide your cats with added entertainment and height is to put up cat shelves.

Maxwell, over at Apartment Therapy, put up a series of cat shelves in his apartment for his two cats, Dodger and Oliver. He says:

When I adopted brothers Dodger and Oliver as kittens last year, I researched climbing products and was appalled at the utter absence of design sensibility in an entire product category.

Even the DIY projects I came across were consistently awful. [...] These are a combination of 12 and 36 units [...] carpeted with Flor tiles using industrial glue. The smaller shelves needed stronger attachment hardware to handle the weight.

Well worth going over to check out the photos (they’re copyright so I shan’t reproduce them here). Maxwell glued floor tiles to his shelves for added grip, but I don’t now if that’s necessary so long as the shelves aren’t too slippery and your cat has a relatively easy way route upwards.

Another favourite resting place for cats is somewhere warm and cosy - like the top of a monitor:

Thanks pquinn.

I have tried those radiator hammocks - metal frames that hook over a radiator and sport a furry cover for your cat to snuggle in - but I’ve never had any luck with them. My cats just haven’t shown any interest in them, maybe because they’re not very stable and so make them feel insecure. A well constructed monitor shelf, on the other hand, is stable, warm, and near kitty’s human.

Unfortunately, flat screen monitors rather rule out monitor shelves for the modern geek moggy, so I guess my futurecats will have to have theirs nailed to the wall instead.