Ahh look at that tiny, little innocent face, the one that I can not bring myself to often even correct! This photo was captured one day when I was cleaning tall cabinets and walked out of the room. Distracted of course I left everything open and when I came back I had a little Bella looking at me. One thing I can say is that when we rescued our cat Bella we had no idea how much fun we would have with her! Bella is the light of our home, and the love she provides to each and every person in our house is undeniably immense. We have learned so much about our kitty in our 2 years with her so far, and each passing day is more interesting than the next. One of the things I have learned and am happy to share is how to help your cat go vertical. Recently our Bella has been getting to the top of our mudroom cabinetry and we have since set up a home base with soft bedding and a few toys. We had no idea that she would leap from our washer and dryer up to the top of the 9 foot ceilings but she did! Now I had to learn to to help her go vertical and climb without getting hurt. This is my story of how to help your cat go vertical, as climbing is natural but getting there is not quite that easy!
Climbing is just a natural progression of growing up kitty and of separating themselves from the rest of the cats if there are multiple cats in a home. The best way for an outdoor cat to rest, and keep safe is to climb up and perch somewhere, but the getting up and down is not always easy! Inside the house, there are so many places that cats came climb that it might cause a bit of ruckus, if you are not accustomed to this.
At first, Bella never attempted to launch off of anything, not furniture, not tabletops, counters, etc. and then one day I found her on a small side table and could not believe she was there! I placed her back on the floor and was adamant about her not climbing up on furniture and she seemed to listen. We purchased a few pedestals with scratching material on them, and of course a few huts and made sure that her hiding spots were well stocked with warm beds.
When we traveled to Mexico, she was free in the house, not locked into her mudroom, and our alarm had gone off. My brother-in-law looked all over the house trying to find Bella and could not, and then he felt eyes on him and guess where she was? 9 Ft up on top of the cabinets in the mudroom and that was when the ‘recently’ started for us with Bella going vertical. Unfortunately for Bella she could not figure her way down and my Brother-in-law brought her down to safety.
How To Help Your Cat Go Vertical
We have been having a go at this with Bella and no matter what we do she goes up, but getting down is hardly easy as it is better than 4 ft to the washer. My thought was to install simple steps on the wall, but we actually found a much better solution. A Cat Climber by SmartCat that attaches to any standard Interior Hinged door, to let her elevate and safely get down after. The Pole itself is created of durable sisal fiber so she can scratch and scratch and scratch, in addition she can tone her muscles when using the sisal fiber.
The mount that is the tall part, offers a very rugged wood construction and it definitely can handle the rough and tumble play of a cat or two. The pedestal steps offer wrap around carpet platforms that are easy to clean and really generous in size. Each platform is 17″ x 8.5″ x 1″ making it a definite place to hang out, sleep or just sit.
Help Your Cat Go Vertical
How exactly does this stay mounted to your door and is it sturdy? Oh yes it is sturdy and as for the door mounting, here is what happens: The bottom of the Cat Climber offers a patented spring-loaded metal bracket, which allows you to extend it to the door height and then keeps it securely against such. The lovely part of this Cat Climber is that you do not have to keep it on the same door you can move it anywhere you want and give the cats a change of scenery. Additionally, if you have an area that your cat likes to climb to, then put this as close as possible to aid them getting up and down, that is what we are doing.
The going vertical works quite nicely as the cats are pretty much going nowhere other than where you want them to go and they are able to perch and do what comes naturally, scratching and sleeping. I can’t believe how simply grand this particular furniture piece is and I truly can not say enough about how sturdy it is. I will tell you that it took us minutes to put this together after we laid it out and put all the pieces together. Bella has now stopped her crazy climbing to heights she can not access and climbs where she can which is how we helped our cat. Now you can help your cat go vertical as well with the Cat Climber and let your cat lavishly live their days out loud having fun.
Product was provided by PR Firm to be tested and reviewed, story and images are my own. Products are only presented on my site when they meet and exceed our lavish living standards. This product was chosen for how Smart it was in helping an animal get up and down!
Nice one. i love cats too, i trained them and its to help a cat to go vertical. i made a house for my cat using sisal fiber. i want to follow these type of post on your blog. keep going.
I would like to see more posts like this. I definitely enjoyed every bit of it and I have you bookmarked to see new information on your blog.