Building Homes for People and Cats
In this article I am referring to urban homes where traffic is the biggest killer of cats. In the immortal words of Martin Luther King, Jr, I have a dream…and my dream is that the companion cat is truly integrated into our lives and not attached to it.
A little example of that is in manufacturing furniture for us that is also designed for use by our cat. This would remove the major reason for declawing a cat and be a blessing for the cat.
At the moment we build homes that are exclusively for people. That sounds like common sense. People should build homes for people. It is our world and we please ourselves and make life as good as we can for ourselves. The world is in balance…
Is it? Hundreds of millions of people share their home with a little family member that is descended from the African/Asian wildcat. This family member is a cat’s whisker away from his ancestor in behavioral characteristics. He is very similar to the majestic tiger.
And yet when new homes are built there is not one iota of a compromise in favour of the cat in respect of the facilities that are incorporated into a home.
This lack of a desire to accommodate our cat companions contributes to the feral cat and stray cat population problem.
Let’s think out of the box and go back to basics. If you want to help make people more responsible in cat caretaking or make it easier to take care of a cat in a responsible way, wouldn’t it be nice if home builders provided an obligatory option of a house style that had pre-installed facilities that were tailor made for a domestic cat? Phew…that takes a bit of digesting because for many people it would seem absurd.
What if there was a law that said that from 2018 onwards people who wanted to keep a cat and were buying a new home, had to buy option C (option C is the standard new build for cats!)? Wouldn’t that be nice? No, you roar…Initially, it would be voluntary.
However, from 2018 onwards it would be obligatory for builders to provide option C homes. These would include the following facilities:
- A cat enclosure or catio of a minimum size that is no smaller than the living room of the house;
- A cat door or cat flap that leads to the cat enclosure. It would be one that did not jeopardise house security.
- A walkway around the room that is adjacent to the enclosure that is off the ground and that leads directly to the enclosure;
- The enclosure contains one item of standard cuman furniture (cat-human). This is obligatory. It could be built into the enclosure as a fixture. The furniture would be designed to be used by cat and human in equal measure.
Option C homes would be very attractive. There would be little compromise for humans. The cat enclosure, a central feature of option C homes would be an indoor/outdoor space for humans too.
It is time to think innovatively to discharge or obligations towards the companion cat and society generally.
What would you incorporate into a home that was built for cat and human? Option D, by the way, is a home built for companion dogs and humans…