Cat Tree Takeover
There is a new-to-us cat tree now "gracing" my living room. I got it from my next door neighbor whose cat Beau--a weird, violent, half-feral tom who feuded hatefully with my cat Wallace--recently died. I've always meant to get my cats some form of cat tree, but unfortunately I think they're hideous. I admit it, I am a Cat Tree Snob. And in my tiny apartments I've never had anywhere but the living room to put them. I always felt bad and wanted my cats to be able to play--I shut them out of my room at night so I can get a modicum of sleep and feel guilty for making their world smaller for several hours. But I could never bring myself to pay all that money for something I would hate every day that I had it. I kept waiting for someone to make one that might actually look kind of cool, but so far no one has (except for a few I saw once that were made by an artsy-fartsy "designer" and cost like $600). That and my cats are the size of Buicks--most cat trees look too flimsy for their lard asses.
Two weeks after Beau died, my neighbor asked if I wanted Beau's old tree. It was tall, sturdy, in pretty good shape, and free. Oh for cryin' out loud, how do I turn that down?
My cats--Wallace and Gromit--have one window they're obsessed with. The tree is now in front of it, right in the middle of everything. It's like the monolith from 2001. I said I'd never put a fugly-ass cat tree in my living room. I said this, I did.
The cats jumped all over it initially, scratching and sniffing and playing despite the fact that it used to belong to Wallace's worst enemy. A bit later they went outside, and I looked at this THING in the middle of the stuff I'd spent so much time picking out and arranging--oh my GOD it couldn't live in that spot. There had to be a compromise between cat happiness and visual harmony. While the boys were not there to give me the stink-eye, I moved the tree to a corner between the side and front windows, but not in front of either. I relocated the stuff that had been in the corner and felt much better about how things looked, and the possibility of living with a large hunk of dirty carpet in my main room from now on. I thought to myself that I'd just see how the guys reacted to having the tree there. See if they jumped on it as much, hung out on it, whatever. I'm the boss. It's my living room, it is, it is.
Wally walked back in at one point, paying no attention to the tree at all. He went into the kitchen. He came back out and kind of stopped and looked at the now-empty window area, orbiting around, craning his neck, looking hard to find something. I said "Hey, buddy, the tree's still here. It's just over there now. See? It's there." I couldn't get his attention to where the tree was. He just kept staring at where it wasn't.
The tree was back in front of the window approximately 45 seconds later.
I turned the chair next to it a little differently. I'm making my peace.
And now, the pictures of the initial hostile takeover...
Wally tries out the second floor.
As you can see by the tint of the pictures, this is Wally's Blue Period.
Soon, it is a two-feline takover.
Notice to the neighborhood: watch your step. You are now under surveillance.
[x-posted to kittypix]