Do you have cat-children? Yes? Well, is your home “catified?” I’m not asking if you have cat toys strewn all over the living room floor, or a closet full of clothes covered in cat hair. What I’m asking is if your home meets the needs of the “raw” cat living inside each of your furry felines. Catified, raw — these are not my terms; they belong to the vocabulary of Kate Benjamin, the founder of a cat design website Hauspanther.com, and the Cat Daddy himself as well as host of Animal Planet’s “My Cat From Hell,” Jackson Galaxy. Together they’re looking out for all the misunderstood kitties living with earnest but clueless humans.
Don’t feel bad about being clueless. I’ve had cats all of my life, and I’m still learning what makes them tick. There are many well-written cat behavior guides out there, and I’ve certainly read my share of them. What’s different about “Catification” is that insight into feline behavior and psychology are purr-fectly combined with solid advice and practical, do-it-yourself projects to make any quirky pussycat satisfied with his/her surroundings. Because, as all you cat people out there know, it’s all about how comfortable and safe your home feels to Fluffy and Snowball (well, this and how frequently you give in to their demands for food).
One of the first things you’ll learn in this week’s book is that each domestic cat has a “raw” side. The Raw Cat (capital letters mean this is important stuff!) is what remains when a housecat’s domesticity is stripped away. As described on page 11, “The Raw Cat [is] a wild animal who is a dedicated, carnivorous hunter, and an animal positioned firmly in the middle of the food chain; in other words, every one of his or her senses is honed as both predator and prey. The Raw Cat always has one eye open … .”
Such finely tuned instincts have managed to survive thousands of years of cat domesticity, so it’s no wonder that I often think of my furry companions — Rooster and Gracie — as compact versions of a tiger and a black panther. Just like their big cat cousins, my whiskered children prefer to perch on high in order to survey any activity happening down below; neither Rooster or Gracie will turn away from crunchies (our code word for dry food) or tins of cat food, but a bite of meat instantly brings out their carnivorous side; and if I allowed them outside, the hunting instinct would kick in, fixing the inevitable destiny of birds and mice too slow to escape their predatory urges.
