There’s catification then there’s blind catification.

I think when mummy and daddy got me they thought I would be cautious, timid and quiet but I’m the exact opposite. I’m confident, fearless and a mighty explorer.

I have loads of energy, I’m always on the go, when I’m awake that is – I am a cat after all! When mummy and daddy are home I’m just so happy to have them in my life and be part of their family that I just want to be with them, all the time from the second they get home to when they go to bed. The weekends are the best though because they’re home all day and I can be with them all the time. Then all too quickly they have to leave in the mornings again and I have no humans to play with me. I just want to play and play and play, then play some more.

Having loads of energy and plenty of confidence to go with it means that when I’m indoors with no immediate sign of mummy taking me for walkies or playing with me I get bored, I need something to do to keep me busy and burn off my energy. This means a lot of catification is in order. I’m sure you all know what catification is but just in case you don’t I’ll explain it for you. Cats even blind ones like me need something to do, things to climb and places to sit, some up high, some down low, covered and snuggly or open for all to see. If you don’t give us our own furniture for us to use as we want to then we have no choice but to use your human furniture instead. Then we get in trouble for scratching the sofa, climbing the bookcase or sitting on the TV!

Sometimes the balcony keeps me occupied as I can hear all the birds 🐦 in the trees and if the weather is warm mummy will come out there with me and play or do stuff to the plants she tries to grow out there. Out here I can climb onto the chair and table and sit in mummy’s planters to watch the birds but I cat stay out here all the time. This is why I need some catification.

I’m very lucky as mummy and daddy had already started the catification as they already had cats so I could find something to climb as soon as I arrived. Since I’ve been here though they have bought lots more things to keep me occupied and make sure I can keep fit and health by climbing and scratching. It also gives me places to sit up high an listen to the world go by and also have a nap whilst I’m up there. I feel safe when I’m up high and can hear anything trying to come up to get me like my new little sisters!

Mummy and daddy have made it so that the whole of the back wall is like a cat walkway, there is a climbing post either end with big human furniture in between that I’m allowed to walk across, then at one end there’s a really high bed that gets really warm in the winter and is really snuggly, it’s really high up so it took me a while to figure out how to get up there but it was worth it. I still need mummy or daddy to help me get down though but I’ll soon be confident enough to do it by myself.

Each of the climbing trees are different and have different feeling scratachy bits, one has a harder surface than the other but they each have different levels, different beds and steps and one even has a toy on it so I can play whilst climbing. These aren’t the only special furniture for me to use, there is also a bed behind the sofa that mummy and daddy sit on , the snuggly bed level is just up behind mummy’s head so I can sit or sleep as part of the family. It also means that occasionally when I want to sit on a lap I can just creep quietly down the back of the sofa onto mummy’s lap. I’m not really a lap cat but every so often when it’s cold outside I just can’t resist a warm lap.

One of my favourite places to climb is the back of the door! This sounds odd to most people who say but cats can’t climb doors but I can, mummy and daddy bought a special climber that fits onto the back of the door, it has different ledges all the way up so I can climb right up to the ceiling.

Mummy thought me how to get up and tried to teach me what she thought was the best way down but I found a better way, much to mummy and daddy’s amazement as they got scared I might hurt myself but as I said I’m and amazing explorer and can find my own ways of doing things. Being blind doesn’t mean I can’t find my own way and if I have gone up then I know I can get back down again.

Mummy and daddy also have special furry beds on their human furniture, in all the rooms, this means that any of us can sit with them wherever they are, even the bedroom whilst they’re asleep. I actually think there is more stuff for cats 🐱 than there is people furniture.

This is what catification is all about, making us able to get up high out the way, have our own stuff to scratch and climb but still be part of the family. The more cats you have the more important it is to be able to allow them to all have their own space but also come together if they all want. Each cat is different and it doesn’t matter if you are blind, a tripaws, special needs or a normal cat, we all need it just like you humans do.

I love my humans for not making things easier for me just because I’m blind, I love them for letting me be me and making their home as much mine as theirs. We are truly a fully integrated special family whose lives intertwine inseparably. The perfectly imperfect family.