Remember how I mentioned Phill and I were going to try to make some cat furniture? Well, don’t get excited … we didn’t. Yet. But there’s a reason for it – on Sunday morning we were at his Dad’s house and I mentioned that Puddy had ripped up her scratching post and we were going to try to make a new one. Phill’s Dad looked at us like we were crazy and said, “Why don’t you just take one of ours? We’ve got heaps.” (It’s true … they have two cats living in the house and a gazillion scratching posts of all sizes and shapes.)

This thought hadn’t actually occurred to me, so I was surprised at the offer. I readily accepted, thinking it would be much easier than making one (okay, so I’m a little lazy!) but I was extra surprised when he pointed out the one we could take.

This one:

The massive, near-new, expensive, gourmet scratching post/cat furniture.

My first reaction was, “Are you sure???” and the second was, “How on earth is this going to fit in the car?”  I could hardly believe it – this thing didn’t exactly cost $20! We managed to get it onto the back seat and we drove it home excitedly, wondering how Puddy would react to it – after all, it’s  pre-owned and it can be very hard to convince another cat that it’s for them when they can smell the old owner all over it.

We took it out in the garage and brushed at it to get all the white fur off. Remember Isha? Yup, she was the old owner. Don’t worry, she’s happy and healthy – she just stopped using it like she used to. Anyway, once we’d got as much of the fur off as we could, we brought it inside and let Puddy investigate.

Sniff, sniff, sniff… what’s this? Who can I smell?

We put a couple of her toy mice on the platform so she’d feel a bit more familiar. The feather toy in the top perch is also hers, as are the treats in the metal bowl attached to the perch. The dangly mouse came with it.

After a little bit (and much more sniffing) she investigated higher…

And higher…

And higher!

So far so good! She’s being cautious, but is obviously very interested in this new toy. Phill was playing with her yesterday, dangling her mice through the tunnel, and she kept bolting through it to get to the mouse. I’ve caught her batting at the dangly mouse, yanking it towards her (incidentally, I wonder how long the dangly mouse will last?) When I got home from work today, there were little bits of fluff all over the ground – telltale signs she’s been scratching at the carpeted posts.

I’m thrilled (and still in shock!) that we managed to get such an amazing piece of cat furniture for free!

We are still enthusiastic about trying to make a basic scratching post, but now those plans have been put on hold for a little bit, since we’ve now got this new addition, plus her old scratching post which she still uses. It’s pretty awesome, isn’t it?