Creating a Cheerful Home for Cats

An innovative center constructs feline-friendly environments.
Lucy the cat loves to get up and run along the top walkways while 15-year-old Zena curls up in a coconut that adorns a large, palm tree-shaped scratching post.
Both cats are permanent residents of the two retirement centers at the National Cat Protection Society in California. NATCAT is one of the few cat shelters in the country that offers a lifetime retirement program for cats whose owners can't keep them.
Now, these innovative centers have been upgraded to include more environmental enrichment for the cats, which helps keep them optimally healthy and happy. Environmental enrichment, by definition, draws out cat-appropriate behavior and provides a range of outlets for feline-oriented activity.
One such upgrade is a wall-to-wall overhead walkway.
“It was designed because they like to walk up high and look down on you,” said shelter manager, Marcia Bohlman.
“There’s carpeted ramps than enable the cat to get up to that area,” Bohlman said. “Sometimes the shier cats want to be up there to get away from everyone else,” she said.
There is also a “volcano” with pressure-controlled heating pads.
“It looks like there are stairs going up, different levels, but it’s in the shape of a volcano. There’s an opening at the top where we can put a bed and the cat will lie up there,” Bohlman said. “Around one of the bottom parts of the volcano are heated beds, like pressure point heated pads, so that when they lay on them, the heat comes up,” she said.
“It’s funny because they lay on them even in the dead of summer, when it’s warm outside,” Bohlman said.
In addition, the environment features what’s called a “lifeguard tower”.
“It’s basically almost a crow’s nest because it’s in the corner of the building,” Bohlman said. “It has a little edging around it so they can’t fall off and there are pillows and beds up there that they can lay on.”