Total Cat Mojo

by Jackson Galaxy

  Oh yeah: and your couch is usually nice and sturdy, covered in a very scratching-friendly material, and lives in a socially significant territorial destination. But we can provide all of these things for your cat in a scratching post. (See chapter 13 for more suggestions on keeping scratching where you want it.)

  Cats usually have four key preferences that you need to know about:

  LocationNow that you know that scratching equals ownership, think about where your cat likes to scratch. Cats will mark things that are socially significant to them, whether that is a door frame, your couch, or a rug. This is where you need to be willing to compromise.

  When you hide a scratching post in the back office that no one ever spends time in, you are ensuring a lack of Mojo and a destroyed sofa. And because scratching equals ownership, you need multiple scratching posts, throughout the home.

  TextureCats want a scratching material they can dig into. Cats usually prefer textures like sisal rope, jute, wood, cork, carpet, or cardboard. Some cats have strong preferences, so it’s good to offer some different choices and see what they like the best. When in doubt, match what they scratch!

  Know your anglesWatch your cats when they scratch; do they prefer horizontal surfaces like your rug, or do they go for the side of the couch in a fully vertical position? Or do they scratch the base of your bed frame? Some cats prefer an angle when scratching, and some cats love to scratch in all three positions.

  Size mattersWhatever you give your cat to scratch, it needs to be sturdy. Cats who are vertical scratchers need to be able to stand on their hind legs, extend their legs, and get a full stretch. Freestanding posts needs a wide base—if it wiggles or wobbles, “the couch wins.”

  URBAN PLANNING

  Urban Planning is a process for setting up your home to accommodate the needs of everyone who lives there—humans and animals—in a way that promotes peaceful coexistence. The key is traffic flow: everyone must be able to move freely through the space without conflict.

  This idea is especially useful for homes with kids and dogs, where we use, to our best advantage, the fact that cats are just as comfortable vertically as they are horizontally. Being able to plan the world completely on that axis makes for comfortable traffic in the house, allows us to find the Confident Where for our cats, push challenge lines (covered in chapter 9), and show them the world in a very positive way . . . all while they show us where in the world they are the most confident.

  Here’s a simple process for integrating some Urban Planning into your house:

  Step One: Evaluate your current home “landscape”

  In a city, traffic lights and street signs create an understanding among the inhabitants, give them rules to play by, and help facilitate optimal traffic flow. When looking at your present home layout, consider how efficiently the “traffic” flows and try to identify any of the following problem areas:

  Hot Spots are the areas where any conflict or other behavior problems occur regularly. Fights, acts of aggression, or peeing outside the litterbox almost always point to a hot spot. Is it happening in the middle of the room? In a window? In a litterbox? To help solve the riddle of problem behavior in a graphic way, use painter’s tape (it has bright colors but won’t damage floor or carpet) to identify where the action is happening. Very simply, the more tape you are placing in a spot, the hotter it is (for more on how to interpret these patterns, see The Anti–Treasure Map on page 243). Hot spots demand alternatives so they don’t become dead ends. Which leads us to . . .

  Ambush Zones and Dead Ends are areas of conflict that are often created by aspects of the space, such as furniture placement, architectural elements, or even clutter. Ambush zones can occur near resources that only have one entrance/exit, such as a hooded litterbox, or a litterbox placed at the end of a hallway or behind the washing machine. Ambush zones allow one cat to block others from coming or going, causing “traffic jams.” Be sure to identify and eliminate ambush zones and dead ends to promote traffic flow.

  Cat Daddy Tip

  Blocking off the Unders

  If you have cats, there’s no reason to have Unders. The Unders are those hard-to-reach spaces—under the sofa, chairs, and bed, in cabinets, or behind your stove—that a scared cat will be attracted to like metal to a magnet.

  To prevent cats from caving, you’ll want to completely block off the Unders. This might mean, for example, filling up the space under your bed tightly with storage bins, or sealing the bottom of your couch off with strips of Plexiglas, or using childproof locks to keep cabinets off limits. Blocking off the Unders encourages your cat to find his Mojo in other parts of the home, rather than hiding away 24/7. More important, it encourages YOU to provide cocoons for your cat—those safe but socially significant places where he can transform into his fully confident self (whatever that looks like for him). Of course, this process needs to be a carefully thought out series of attainable challenges. Learn more about the approach I call the Challenge Line in chapter 9.

  Step Two: Optimize traffic flow

  Adding a Traffic Circle to a hot spot can divert the flow of traffic and prevent conflict. Traffic circles can be a cat tree or other piece of furniture, and they function to diffuse potential conflict.

  Once you have identified an ambush zone or a dead end, a Revolving Door can keep the traffic flowing. This usually involves a climbing structure—like a cat tree or some kind of shelving—that allows a cat to move safely up and out of a problem area.

  Escape Routes prevent cats from being cornered. You can provide escape routes by offering an uncovered litterbox or by making sure all cubbies or shelves have multiple exit points.

  Step Three: Utilize and optimize the full space potential of key rooms with the following ideas:

  VERTICAL WORLD

  We all know cats are natural climbers, so when we evaluate the Catification potential of any room, we must consider the vertical world that exists there. When possible, cats will inhabit all available space in a room, from floor to ceiling, particularly our Tree Dwellers. Remember, they like virtually any area off the floor—from chairs, to the tops of tables and bookcases, to the highest elevations of a room. Consider how the existing furnishings in a room might best be optimized as a vertical landscape.

  Catification for Special Needs

  What exactly qualifies a cat as “special needs”? One common denominator—whether cats are elderly, blind, deaf, have neurological disorders, missing limbs, or were born with other serious health issues—is that getting around their world is usually part of their challenge. Regardless of their disability, my goal for every one of those cats remains consistent: help them find or maximize their Mojo.

  If you have a senior or special needs cat, you can modify your Catification pretty easily in order to accommodate him:

  Make sure he can walk right into his litterbox by cutting away the majority of the front of the box.

  Night lights along baseboards can make a huge difference for a cat who can’t see his way around at night.

  Ramps at gentle angles, padding, nonskid mats, heated beds or pads, and comfy perches help your cat access those Mojo-fied areas and stay in touch with his vertical world and Cat TV.

  Engaging your special needs cat with HCKE, and keeping him connected to the Three Rs, will also help him remain vital. Remember, self-consciousness and pity has little to do with the moment-to-moment life of a cat. We should meet him on his own terms. Through Catification and how we utilize it, we can keep these cats safe and simultaneously continue to explore the world of challenge.

  THE CAT SUPERHIGHWAY

  As one of the most compelling aspects of Catification, the Cat Superhighway enhances traffic flow and gives cats full access to the Vertical World, as it allows them to move through a room without setting a paw on the ground.

  Some of the main features of a well-constructed Cat Superhighway
include:

  Multiple Lanes are imaginary lines that run along a vertical axis of the “highway,” enabling ample room for multiple cats to traverse the area without crowding issues.

  On/Off Ramps serve as both access lanes to, and escape routes from, the Superhighway. Multiple entry/exit points are essential, particularly in multicat households.

  Destinations and Rest Stops make your Cat Superhighway more appealing and ensure that it will actually be well traveled. Destinations are the types of locations where a cat will undoubtedly go and spend some time—like a cat bed on top of a bookcase, for example. Rest stops are designed to be temporary stopping points along the way, where cats can pause and take in the scenery—like small perches or even a Crow’s Nest, which is basically a lookout post where cats can see what’s going on in their domain.

  Here are a few things to avoid when designing your Cat Superhighway:

  Narrow Lanes—When lanes on your highway are too narrow and cats can’t easily pass each other, this can mean cat traffic “gridlock” . . . which can often mean trouble. Shoot for a minimum lane width of eight or nine inches (so two cats can easily pass), or arrange for a nearby exit ramp or alternative route.

  Areas Where You Can’t Reach Your Cat—Avoid constructing your Superhighway so “super” that you can’t get to your cat in case of an emergency, or even a vet visit. You will need to be able to reach her at all times. This design feature will make cleaning day easier as well.

  Hot Spots, Ambush Zones, and Dead Ends—Even without narrow lanes, conflicts can erupt for any number of reasons. Be on the lookout for any place along the highway where there might be a dead end or problem area. Extra lanes or on/off ramps can often remedy these issues quickly and get traffic flowing peacefully again.

  THE ICING ON YOUR CATIFICATION CAKE

  Okay, so we have established base camp. We have enhanced the home turf with our Urban Planning, creating free-flowing, room-to-room traffic and optimizing all available space on both horizontal and vertical planes. And then we have placed our scent soakers and signposts strategically throughout this Mojo-fied terrain. Now, let’s talk about two more Catification staples that are true game changers.

  The Cat Sundial

  The Cat Sundial is the tendency for cats to follow the patterns of the sun throughout the home. The best thing you can do is know what windows let in the most sun at each time of the day. And then make sure you place scent soakers in those areas: beds, cat trees, perches, hammocks, or condos.

  When you give your cats multiple resources in these highly desirable areas, you allow them to practice the fine feline art of time-sharing. Allow your cats to share, rather than fight over, territorial resources.

  Cat TV

  In our homes, the TV is a relaxation focal point. No matter how busy our day is, no matter how chaotic, we know that we can park ourselves in front of that ubiquitous appliance and, if provided with good entertainment, it will all disappear, if only for thirty minutes. Although we often talk about “vegging out,” that’s not the whole story; watching TV gives us that rare opportunity to relax and engage at the same time. We are not just watching but are using our imaginations, joining story lines, and investing in other lives. But we are doing so with a degree of detachment, so that the enjoyment outweighs the stress of actually living through those story lines.

  With the exception of the pleasant heat that comes off the console, cats have very little use for our TVs. But that doesn’t mean they can’t reap the benefits of the concept. Cat TV takes the most important story line for cats—hunting—and puts it in a “box,” so that they can experience the same relaxed sensation: an exercise I call “passive engagement.”

  The most common Cat TV watching involves sitting at a window to watch prey. The key to a stalk-and-rush hunter’s strategy is the watching and assessing. The pounce is just a small part of the HCKE cycle, whereas sizing up prey and planning a possible attack is an activity that can engage your cat for most of his day. Think about it—we’ve all seen our cats obsessing over a moth that is circling a lightbulb. Cats can literally sit there for hours, waiting for that moth to make a move (or a mistake).

  Just as you might design your living room with the TV as the focal point, look around your home for prime windows for creating Cat TV, and add things outside those windows to attract natural prey such as birds and insects. Think: a bird in a birdbath, bees visiting flowers, squirrels at a feeder. Make the window a destination location with a cat tree, perch, or cat bed that invites your cat to sit and binge-watch Cat TV to his heart’s content.

  Also, keep the Cat Sundial in mind when designing Cat TV. This way you can maximize the chance that your cat will actually use her TV perch based on the natural movement of sunlight throughout the day.

  If you live in an apartment, it’s a little tougher. Not only is window space itself at a premium, but the ability to hang things like bird feeders, birdhouses, etc., outside is usually sacrificed. In that case, there are other options. For example, although I’m not a big proponent of aquariums, they provide quality TV time without the benefit of an actual window (just take really good care of those fish!). There are also very cool “fake aquariums” out there that use plastic fish and jellyfish and are also pretty realistic. They are designed as decoration for humans but make for great Cat TV. Also, as long as you remember to make the existing windows available and inviting, then just watching the “ant people” down on the street can be an exercise filled with fascination and engagement.

  Setting your home up with multiple Cat TV–watching stations will reap immediate benefits for your cat, and for you, as well. It prevents boredom, anxiety, and stress for cats who are left alone during the day. Just as important, it simultaneously complements your daily play rituals with your cat. Of course, there is no better way to drain air from the Energetic Balloon than to actually play with your cat, but allowing for stretches of passive engagement while you can’t be there keeps the balloon from filling to bursting point the moment you walk in the door. As I’ve said before, every moment with your cat is an opportunity to either inject energy into the balloon or drain it out. Cat TV gives you the ability to make that choice remotely; the territory itself helps to keep her daily Mojo rhythm intact.

  THE MOJO MAP

  Up until now, I’ve been concentrating on the components of a properly Catified home. But in order to understand how those components come together to create an optimal flow within the territory, there’s no better way than making a Mojo Map.

  What goes in your Mojo Map?

  Layer 1: The areas your cat uses

  Layer 2: The things you have provided for your cat

  The elements of Catification in your home

  Cat TV areas

  How cat traffic flows in your house

  Where your cat pees, poops, eats, sleeps, and patrols

  Time-sharing of specific areas

  The territorial thrones of your home—for both cats and humans (the bed and couch)

  Areas where your cat spends a lot of time versus just sauntering through

  The Sundial

  Windows and doors

  Start with a blueprint of your home. There are apps online that can actually help create that for you, or you can just go decidedly low-tech and sketch out the layout of your house with a pencil and paper. Put in the big pieces of human furniture, the windows, the doors, and what they lead to. That is the base of your Mojo Map.

  The Mojo Map allows you to be proactive about identifying socially significant areas (or SSAs)—the “thrones” (the most coveted and oftentimes argued-over pieces of cat furniture), the heavily trafficked areas of the house, and, in multicat households, the points of contention. The Mojo Map will allow you to define patterns (and potential blockages) that inform Catification choices, such as where you place your litterboxes and where you should add a cat tree.

 
To help illuminate your cats’ preferences and patterns and how you can complement them, I like using the old grade-school star stickers. Start by putting stars on high-value places: Where do your cats sleep more than a few hours each day? Where do they play? Where do they scratch (even if it’s not where you want them to)? In the multicat household, give each cat his own star color so you can better acquaint yourself with each cat’s core territory, how it overlaps with that of other cats as well as that of the humans, and what parts of your home don’t hold much weight.

  Speaking of humans, think about which rooms they tend to congregate in, and where the daily rituals are centered. Does your family spend most of its time in the kitchen? Or do you work from home all day in an office? Do you retire to a family room at night to watch TV? Or are the kids doing homework at the dining room table while you read in bed? This is a time to think about territorial co-ownership, one of the tent poles of Catification: these rooms, as important as they are to the human family, should be reflected in the map as being equally important to the cats.

  The Mojo Map will help you identify the core of your cat’s territory. And once you identify it, you’ve thrown that pebble in, and then you Catify the ripples. When you compare the human SSAs to what you are offering your cat, you will see, very clearly, what areas in your home need more Catification.