I’ve scratched before on the importance of upholstery decisions, but I may have neglected the value of human furniture in a cat’s life.
Furniture provides a domestic haven for cats – space to sleep, groom, luxuriate, look cute, meditate, ponder quantum physics... Also, a station from which to tabulate human visits to the bathroom - correlated, of course, to beverage ingestion.
But this is only half the equation. A cat’s physical health also depends on quality furniture strategically placed in the home, in ways that encourage and enhance exercise and cardiovascular health.
Around here, we call this full tilt boogie. It’s something Alex invented, and a delicate balancing act. The furniture needs to be out of the way in the long stretches so a cat can reach blistering straightaway speeds, but perfectly placed to maximize leaping, rolling, ball chasing, and launching.
Our living room is kinda small, but it holds enormous potential for full-tilt boogie. Cats bounding up or down the stairwell have a real opportunity—if their style isn’t cramped by poor furniture placement. The room is essentially a throughway. Cats can run in racetrack style through the room, into the kitchen, and back into the living room, and then go round again. (Oom has been known to do this as well, but that's a topic for another blog.)
Alex and I just assumed our people would note this potential and set up the furniture accordingly. Unfortunately, they missed the boat first time out. Besides not even following the basic tenants of feng shui, their first layout simply did not maximize cat boogie.
Around here, we call this full tilt boogie. It’s something Alex invented, and a delicate balancing act. The furniture needs to be out of the way in the long stretches so a cat can reach blistering straightaway speeds, but perfectly placed to maximize leaping, rolling, ball chasing, and launching.
Our living room is kinda small, but it holds enormous potential for full-tilt boogie. Cats bounding up or down the stairwell have a real opportunity—if their style isn’t cramped by poor furniture placement. The room is essentially a throughway. Cats can run in racetrack style through the room, into the kitchen, and back into the living room, and then go round again. (Oom has been known to do this as well, but that's a topic for another blog.)
Alex and I just assumed our people would note this potential and set up the furniture accordingly. Unfortunately, they missed the boat first time out. Besides not even following the basic tenants of feng shui, their first layout simply did not maximize cat boogie.
But they soon saw the light, and the other night, we had a furniture-moving extravaganza! The goal: to create a quiet spot for relaxing, thinking and hanging out with others that can augment a feline’s capacity to chase, bound, skitter and zip at full throttle.
Initial explorations of couch placement inhibited full-tilt-boogie. Here, you see my concern, and Alex trying to demonstrate for Boo the lack of boogie in his layout.
Then, after an unusually daring shift, Alex demonstrated the enormous potential of a radical new couch positioning in front of the staircase.
Initial explorations of couch placement inhibited full-tilt-boogie. Here, you see my concern, and Alex trying to demonstrate for Boo the lack of boogie in his layout.
Then, after an unusually daring shift, Alex demonstrated the enormous potential of a radical new couch positioning in front of the staircase.Granted, her favorite round table would have to go. It was sacrificed to a higher cause - cat and human access to the back porch.
The finished product is a pleasure for our humans but also great leap forward for cats everywhere.
