Kits and Mortar

One of the hardest things to do for an indoors cat is provide them with enough exercise to keep them fit and healthy. Cats that don’t move about enough are prone to putting on weight and risk getting diabetes - all of which makes for both sad kittie and sad owners.

Indeed, I saw this problem with my own cat, Fflwff, when she went to live with my parents down in Dorset. Introducing an adult cat into a household of three other adult cats (all female) is pretty tricky, and Fflwff spent about three months living on top of the wardrobe. She slept up there, ate up there, and only came down in the middle of the night to use the litter tray.

Fflwff’s a big cat, easily twice the size of some of the other cats we’ve had, and as such it’s important that her weight is kept in check. Unfortunately, even after my parents other cats died - thus giving her full ownership of the house - she did put on some pounds, getting up to 8.6kg (19lbs) at her podgiest. The vet recommended we get at least a kilogram off her, but that’s not easy for a cat that likes to sit about and sleep a lot!

The cure for Fflwff turned out to be the acquisition of two feisty kittens who now chase her round the house and steal her food, but that’s not an option for everyone. Providing you’ve got the room, though, a cat wheel can be a really good way to get your moggies moving.

The videos on YouTube of cats running on cat wheels seem mainly to be of Bengals, but don’t let that put you off - the idea is sound for any breed of cat or colour of moggie.

You can buy cat wheels from companies such as The Cat Wheel Company or PetZones, although they’re far from cheap. Given the concept of a wheel isn’t hard to grasp, it might be cheaper to find a local craftsman to make one for you. So long as the wheel is well supported and not too heavy, it should be pretty easy to make.

What may not be so easy is getting your cat to use it! The Cat Wheel Company has a few suggestions on training:

The main thing, I suspect, is to use positive re-inforcement. Use a toy initially to get them to understand that when they run the wheel moves, give food rewards every time they run to start with, then once the behaviour is established give random rewards to maintain it. A lot of cats seem to really love running on their wheels, so depending on the attitude of yours, it may not be that hard to get them to exercise.

It may seem strange to see a cat running on a wheel, but they clearly enjoy it and I’m definitely going to think about where I could put a cat wheel in when I come to designing my house. After all, well-exercised cats are not just healthier, they’re also less likely to exhibit bad behaviour, such as scratching or shredding, as a result of boredom.

Besides that, cat + wheel = hours of entertainment, so its a win-win situation for both hoomans and kittehs!

Filed under : cats, design for cats, things we'd like in our house

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In a nice bit of circuitousness, I discover that today is National Work From Home Day. This is both apt, as I’m here in Lausanne to talk at Going Solo about what freelances can do to keep a healthy balance between work and non-work, and ironic as I spent all day travelling and definitely not working from home. Mind you, I do it all the time and the novelty wore off, oh, about ten years ago.

I used to use half my lounge as my office, with a proper desk, chair and filing cabinet. I even had in-trays. But now I’m relegated to a coffee table, and it’s really not great. There’s no doubt in my mind that my new house, whenever it gets built, will have to have an office space in it somewhere. Whether it’s hidden away in the attic or integrated into the main living space I don’t know. Either plan has advantages and drawbacks, but so long as I have somewhere to hide away my clutter, I think either would work.

Meantime, I wonder if they’re going to start a National Work From Airports, Hotels and Conferences Day…

Filed under : general, things we'd like in our house

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I have a pretty dodgy back which has been prone to problems for the majority of my life, so I’m really very keen on things like chiropractic and massage, whether sports or shiatsu. Indeed, one of the items on our wedding list that Kevin and I were surprised to receive was a machine you place on your chair and which then gives you a massage. It feels lovely, but compared to the one I’ve just experienced… well, that’s the difference between “stuff you can put on a wedding list someone might actually buy” and “stuff you’d need some sort of unexpected inheritance to afford”.

The woman who encouraged me to try this massage table used the time that I was lying there to give me the full sales pitch, which in all honesty wasn’t that sales-y. The company that designed and builds it are apparently a medical company, so there was a lot of information about how the machine can help relax and improve the condition of your muscles, and can even break up any blood clots that you might have skulking about.

All very impressive, but what really got my attention was the fact that just 5 - 10 minutes on the Relaxo-Comfort, by German company Biocomfort, wiped out days of backache. I’ve spent three out of the last four days walking round ExCeL with my laptop, charger, digital SLR, two mobile phones and various other bits of kit. Even with my very comfortable Crumpler backpack for the laptop, my back has been really achy and painful. Yet a short massage from the Biocomfort certainly eased the ache more than I would have expected from simply lying down.

So I’m completely sold on the idea, even if I have nowhere to put a Biocomfort, nor the money to buy one (I don’t remember how much it cost, my head can’t hold figures over £1000…). Never mind - it definitely goes into the “things we’d like in our house” category!

Filed under : Grand Designs, exhibitions and events, things we'd like in our house

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Here we go with the first collection of Things We’d Like In Our House:

• A secret door. Really, what’s the point of building your own house if you don’t build a secret door into it?
• Oak beams. So beautiful they make me go all weak at the knees.
• A library. Oh yes, definitely a library.
• A cat. Although that’s not really an architectural feature.
• A hot tub!

Filed under : things we'd like in our house

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I’ve realised that, in the course of writing this blog, I am already forming opinions regarding what I would like our future house to have, and what will never, every, overmydeadbody, make any sort of an appearance in our future house.

So, I’ve created two new categories in order to collect these things together in simple bullet points. That means that when we begin actually planning the house, we can just pull up the Things We’d Like In Our House category, and voilá, a ready made list. And we can give our architect a link to Things That Will Never Appear In Our House and s/he can get a fair idea of our dislikes too.

Do try to contain your excitement, and ready yourself for two posts to come…

Filed under : things that will never appear in our house, things we'd like in our house

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