When you walk into someone’s house, and you see one of those terrible trees, you know your bud is…a cat lady. Man or woman, that’s just what they are. They pay a bit too much attention to their kitty children’s needs than the norm or than what is socially acceptable.

Now, don’t get me wrong – if I had an extra room, I’d make it a cat haven complete with trees and shelves and I’d adopt a couple of shelter cats to play with the two we have now in their own little space, but I don’t.

What I do have is a chic house, with a bedroom and an office for me, both of which remain cat-free. The office – because of the birds I keep in there, the bedroom – because I don’t like cat hair on my brand new comforter.

I’ve also got two roomies, who don’t appreciate cat ladiness any more than I do.

Ahem, that’s not going to stop me from eventually getting a

feline solarium by the way, but I digress.

Now the reason I’m posting about cat furniture is that I remembered seeing something small and yet fun and chic not too long ago. Payday was yesterday, and so I had money on the brain. Not in my pockets burning a hole, because as a responsible [what's that?] adult, I have a budget. So really, it’s spent before I get it.

So while I was planning out my monetary obligations for the next six months, and trying to factor in a feline solarium, I tried finding this small/fun/chic playset for my kitties for the future, but I couldn’t find it. Instead, I was bombarded by trees, neat new ideas, terribly done old ideas, and so much in between. I overloaded my eye balls with this online information for a couple hours – and I feel that this is enough to make me an expert on the subject. So naturally, I’m blogging about it. OK! Here’s what I’ve found…

The traditional cat lady’s cat trees, while they may be fun for her 15 cats, are a bit scary to look at.

The alternative? There’s plenty of “modern” choices for cat owners, but most of the choices aren’t modern and cheap. While very cute and not too – carpet on wooden towers, that always just screams cat lady.

So you’ve got to start from scratch here with your way of thinking. Tried cheap and fun, but that’s ugly and scary. Tried modern and fun, but that’s too expensive. What the heck is the alternative?

The average cat person is ok with their feline buddies sleeping on the couch, or on the bed. Most of us have a clever hiding spot for the litter box. So the only real issue is – what cat furniture can someone get to entertain their kitty that won’t end up taking away from their overall style.

The most popular solution I’ve found: cat shelves. There’s a few

Not for books.

manufacturers that make cute variations of the shelves, but they’re not very large, and could probably be taken out with a few scratch sessions. I mean my cats took out a wooden mirror frame for gods sake.

I did find a little Mom & Pop company however, that uses two by fours and durable carpeting.

Kat Wallks (www.katwallks.com)  actually look more like railings on stairs, orfuzzy shelves than actual cat furniture. It’s an incredible alternative to those terrible condos or trees, and it beats having a bunch of small shelves. They’re long enough to put maybe one at a 45 degree angle and a corner shelf, and your cat is ten times happier than climbing up things that may fall over, or have obstacles on.

Hey, if that doesn’t work, you could always get a realistic cat tree for only a grand for the large design.

(Pettreehouses.com)

The last style/cat needs clash in my opinion, is the scratching post. If you don’t have it out in the house, the cats will most certainly use whatever’s around. Much like if you don’t make the litterbox available enough, they’ll find a nice spot.

A great alternative to the couch corners and carpeting is a scratching post that fits to the base of any wall.

It’s cute enough to leave out and not be embarassed by, but it’s minimal enough not to take away from the rest of your style.

(www.moderncat.net)

And maybe it can help with any bad wall-scratching behaviors your cat may have. I know our Calico, Kali, loves to find weird shadows and spots on walls and tear them open so it eventually looks like we

Cat art.

were trying to dig out during the latest DC snowmageddon.

Personally, I like the little scratching squares that look like wall art to the untrained human eye, but that’s just me.

The alternative?

I prefer either of those choices to the plain post covered in carpet and string. Those aren’t too bad, but they aren’t too chic either.

And it sure beats those terrible, TERRIBLE cardboard scratchers. Those may work, but they don’t fit in any style scheme I’d want, that’s for sure.

So since we all can’t build a place that’s as neat as Nekobukuro in Japan, we can still make some kind of compromise so our kitties can still climb as they’re naturally inclined to do so, without breaking our budgets or compromising our styles.

The house is a pay-to-play place created because cats are expensive in the country, and many landlords don't allow feline friends in their doors.