Catnex Cat Furniture: Does Feline Furniture Offer the Cat Tree of Your Dreams?
Want kitty to stop clawing your new sofa? Can’t sit down without getting fur on your clothes? Have a cat that’s too bored for his own good, and needs a playground all to himself?
If so, you have to face facts; it’s time to invest in some cat furniture.
I used to think that cat trees and cat furniture were for pampered pets or people with too much money. That was before my cat shredded my loveseat. We could de-claw him, or we could glue those little soft-paw vinyl pads onto his toe-nails, but giving him a fun place to scratch was by far the best option.
I learned the hard way that cat furniture is a multi-purpose solution to help you live more harmoniously with your feline family members. With towers, scratching posts, and places for kittens to nap-cat furniture is a one-stop-shop for cats, and will lure them away from your chairs and ottomans. This means less shedding on your clothes, and less mess to clean up.
Now, if you’re the handy sort and you’ve got a bunch of lumber, extra carpet, sisal rope and rust-free staples sitting around, you might try to make your own cat furniture.
But my husband and I have an unerring ability to turn a ten minute project into one that lasts ten hours. We just don’t have the time, nor the skill to build a cat tree that will appeal to the kitten in every cat. And we couldn’t afford the $130-$400 that Petsmart was asking for their most elaborate cat furniture. (The prices for discount cat furniture on Ebay are also a joke once you figure in shipping.)
Why You Should Consider Catnex Cat Furniture
As I shopped for cat furniture, I just kept thinking that I was going to spend all this money, and once my cat scratched the post to ribbons or otherwise soiled the carpeting, I was going to have to throw it out and buy a new cat tree.
Then I found Feline Furniture’s Catnex cat furniture.
I admit, visiting their website, I was not impressed at first. Though proudly touting their modular system that “allows for scratching, sleeping, playing and more,” their display pictures looked kind of funky. Each cube is built out of carpeted scratching posts and plastic connectors-like a giant erector set for cats. The immediate disadvantage I saw was that Catnex cat furniture wasn’t cute-it wasn’t shaped like a cat tree, a little cottage, a bird house, or a Buddhist temple.
On the other hand, this cat furniture wasn’t shaped like a cat tree, a little cottage, a bird house, or a Buddhist temple. It would actually be easier to fit in with my household dÃ?©cor. And while grey wasn’t my preferred choice, I figured that as a neutral it wouldn’t stand out too much in my living room.
What I didn’t know at the time was that I needn’t have worried about the appearance of Catnex cat furniture. Once my husband started unpacking it, I realized that our whole starter package (the $55 Kitty Clubhouse), weighed next to nothing, and took up a smaller footprint than my end tables.
If company is coming over and the house needs to look perfect, it’s a snap to just pick it up and move it to the closet.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The Genius of Modular Cat Furniture Design
The real reason we decided to buy Catnex Cat Furniture was the genius of its design. What sets it apart from cat trees and cat furniture of other types, is its modularity. Shaped like a jungle gym, each cat furniture cube offers the possibility of climbing, scratching, swinging, and balancing.
And because Feline Furniture sells the legs and connectors to their cat furniture separately, I don’t have to replace the whole set if my cat scratched one of the legs to shreds. Moreover, because the furry cat hammocks and cat condos are machine washable, soiling is not an issue. (And believe me, my hairball-spewing cat has already tested this theory.)
We started out, as I mentioned, with a single cube. My husband put it together with a childish look of glee, and both cats reacted to the furniture with instant delight. They could scratch, bite and play in it as if it were a cardboard box. Within days, it became the most popular sleeping place in the house, and that’s when the fighting started.
Both cats wanted to be on the top bunk.
Once You Start, You Just Can’t Stop
And so it was that within a week of owning Catnex Cat Furniture, I was shelling out more cash to add on another level. But now, armed with all these extra legs and plastic connectors, my husband and I really had fun. We configured all manner of cat trees and cat furniture arrangements. We made a tower. We made a corner unit. We made double-perches.
Ultimately, the design the cats preferred was not the massive towering structures advertised on Feline Furniture’s website, but a short condo-tower by the window, and a separate cube by my desk so they can watch me work.
The Downsides
The Velcro tape that holds the hammocks onto the carpeted cat furniture legs are the biggest pain to reconfiguring the furniture, and I admit, it’s not something you want to do every day. But it’s comforting to know that you can take it apart if you need a quick cube to bring on vacation, or to move upstairs for a sick cat. And that kind of flexibility is not available in any other kind of cat furniture.
So far, the carpeted legs of Catnex furniture have held up well to scratching and biting, though I do sometimes worry that because it uses car carpeting rather than plush, it isn’t an appealing enough scratching surface for cats. Feline Furniture has promised that they are going to develop a sisal wrapped modular leg-and when that happens, I’m sure my cats will think their cat furniture is like brand new again.
Cost is sort of a mixed bag. On the one hand, you may end up spending just as much money on Catnex cat furniture as you would buying a big cat tree at the pet store chains. But the longevity of the set, and the flexibility it offers may be well worth it. The modular pieces are priced very reasonably, so you can buy only what you need. And each separate piece, right down to the furry hammocks, are extremely well made.
Overall
My cats give Catnex Cat Furniture a big thumbs up. Any time it’s covered in fur, or catnip, or the latest spider that the kitten has decided to kill, I just throw it in the wash. Any time the cats start to get bored with it, we make a new design.
If you’re going to invest money in cat furniture, Catnex may be your best bet.
