Cat Accessible

With two frisky felines here in the house, I try and make sure the house is ergonomically right for their special talents and needs. What this means in plain English is that they can jump to their destinations. Cats like to be as high-up as they can. My Mom maintained that they just like to be at our level, but I still think they like that top shelf, that apogee in the house. 

Cindy, pictured here, could make that jump from floor to dresser in a single bound(I've seen her do it), but the white table makes it much easier for her- and Jill, although that's primarily(but not exclusively)Cindy's domain. 

 She loves to be petted from up there, and often sits in the white chair in anticipation of my passing by the dresser, whereupon she paces about while I(as her attendant)am expected to wait until she's settled in for the petting to begin. Well,she gets what she gets, as her attendant gets bored with this game- which is of course heavily weighted toward Cindy's welfare..

This may look a little strange, but there's a story behind it. The upper level, mezzanine dining here was set up because originally I had a dog eating in here as well. Dogs and cats, you may know, don't tend to share very well when it comes to food.

 And with everyone's stuff together on the floor, Lester(the dog)would  just push the cats out of the way and scarf down their chow, along with his own. No compunction whatsoever. Absolutely shameless. I intervened, of course, when I caught him in the act(and he tried to be sneaky about it)but there was many a time I saw the cats back in the dining room with Lester soon leaving the kitchen with that triumphant grin on his mug. 

So the elegant solution was to have multi-level dining. Everybody's happy. Peace on Earth, and enough rice for all the people. It solved the problem, and we've just kept on with the mezzanine thing long after Lester's departure back in August of 2012. And pretty much every time, the cats use the stairs!