How a Simple Bedside Cat Condo Changed My Sleep Forever
I originally just wanted to buy a cat bed, but ended up completely changing my bedside life
(A genuine rambling of a school bus driver who has been working for 18 years)
Let me tell you the truth first.
I'm not the kind of person who would seriously study cat condo.
The areas I have studied the most in my life are braking distance, rearview mirror Angle, and how to keep a group of elementary school students quiet in the car for 12 minutes.
Every morning at 5:10, my alarm clock rings like a fire alarm.
I usually half-close my eyes, touch the kitchen, press the coffee machine first, and then stand there in a daze for 30 seconds, contemplating life.
It's not the kind of philosophical thinking.
It's that kind
Will someone leave their lunch box in my car again today?
It's that simple.
But all of this was before my orange cat Biscuit showed up.
Or to be more precise, it was before it decided to take over my bedside table.
My cat first "occupied" the bedside table at 2:43 a.m
I remember it very clearly.
It's not because I have a good memory.
It's because I was scared awake that day.
I heard a "thud" in the middle of the night.
It's not very big, but in a quiet room, it's enough to make a man in his forties come to his senses instantly.
I opened my eyes and saw a blurry shadow squatting on my bedside table.
My first reaction at that time was:
Oh no, someone has entered the room.
The next second, the shadow yawned.
Meow.
All right.
It's my cat.
It just sat on my bedside table, its tail curled up in a circle, with a particularly calm expression, as if saying:
You keep sleeping. I'm just changing places.
The problem is --
That's not its place.
That's where I put my glasses and cell phone.
And it weighs 12 pounds.
You can imagine how it would feel if a bowling ball suddenly sat by your bedside.
The first thing I did was very typical and very stupid
I bought a cat house online which looks particularly luxurious.
The thing in the photo is just like a cat's resort.
Three-layer structure.
Furry appearance.
There is also a small drop shot.
I was thinking at that time:
This time it must be satisfied, right?
Reality soon slapped me in the face.
When I was installing that cat bed, my waist almost declared retirement
As soon as the box arrived, I began to assemble it.
The instruction manual has 9 pages.
9 pages.
I was a little flustered at that moment.
Because my life experience tells me:
If something requires a 9-page instruction manual, there will definitely be 9 kinds of problems with it in the future.
But I still insisted on finishing the installation.
It took a full one hour and seventeen minutes.
Two screws fell off in the middle and I lay on the ground looking for them for ten minutes.
The last one was found under the slippers.
After it was finally installed, I stood there with my hands on my hips, feeling a little proud in my heart.
It's just like having an old pickup truck just repaired.
Then I carried the cat over, wanting it to "experience the new house".
It walked over.
I smelled it.
It stopped for three seconds.
Then --
He turned and left.
Jump straight back to my bedside table.
At that moment, I was really a little hurt.
I'm not kidding.
I'm a grown man, standing in the living room, looking at that unused cat condo, with only one sentence in my mind:
Well, it's my fault for not understanding you.
Later, I gradually discovered a very realistic problem
A lot of cat furniture is for people to see.
It's not for cats.
They look very cool.
Very large.
Very fancy.
But cats don't care about these at all.
Cats only care about three things:
Stable or not?
Is it quiet?
Is it close to you
It's that simple.
What really changed my mind was a particularly ordinary Saturday
I wasn't working that day.
It's very cold.
I was sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee while Biscuit was squatting by the window, looking at the fat cat of the neighbor's house outside.
The two of them would look at each other through the window every day.
Like two retired old men.
When I was scrolling through my phone, I saw a rather strange design.
Call it a cat condo. It looks like furniture.
Let's call it furniture. Inside it, there's a cat bed.
The key point is -
It looks like a bedside table.
At that moment, it suddenly occurred to me
Wait a moment. My cat has always liked to stay near the bedside.
Then why not just put cat house there directly?
As soon as this thought occurred to me, I got a little excited.
It's like suddenly finding a particularly simple answer.
The first time I put that wooden cat house by my bedside, I was actually a little nervous
It's not that I'm afraid it will break.
It's out of fear that the cat won't buy it.
If you have ever raised a cat, you will understand this feeling.
You spend money on something and in your heart you particularly hope that it will like it.
But I dare not have too high expectations.
Just like buying a birthday present for a child.
Biscuit's expression at that time, I will never forget for the rest of my life
After I put the new multifunction cat condo in place, it stood at the door and looked for a long time.
Really a long time.
It's about 20 seconds.
That expression was just like that of a house inspector.
It walked over slowly.
Put your head in.
I made a round.
Then sit down.
Pause.
Pause again.
Finally, it lay down directly.
Without hesitation.
There was no probing.
Didn't walk away.
Just quietly curled up there.
I was standing beside at that time and suddenly felt a bit like laughing.
Because this was the first time I bought something for a cat, it didn't look down upon me.
The most magical thing began that night
Every night before, when I was sleeping, it would walk back and forth in the room.
Sometimes I would suddenly start parkour at 3 a.m.
I have no idea what it's chasing.
It might be a ghost.
It might also be its own shadow.
But everything has changed since that bedside cat condo appeared.
I turn off the lights at night.
It will jump in automatically.
Be quiet.
Stable.
No trouble.
Just like an adult suddenly learning to go to bed early.
A year has passed before I truly realized its value
Not because it looks good.
It's not because it's strong.
But it is because -
I have never been trampled awake by a cat in the middle of the night again.
You might think this is nothing.
But if you have to get up at 5 a.m. every day to drive the school bus, you will know how important this is.
Sleep, to me, is gold.
It's not a metaphor.
It's real gold.
There was another small change that I completely didn't expect at that time
My bedroom looks neater.
I used to have a bedside table.
There is also a cat bed nearby.
Two things occupy two positions.
Now it has become one.
Simple.
Clean.
There's nothing extra.
I actually don't like organizing things.
But I like to look neat and tidy.
Later, when I talked about this with a colleague, he said a particularly classic sentence
That day we were waiting for the next route in the parking lot.
It was very cold and everyone huddled in their cars.
I told him I had moved to a new cat condo.
He said:
You're not just keeping a cat now; you're doing real estate planning for it.
We both laughed for a long time on the spot.
To be honest, I have a new standard for buying things for cats now
It's very simple.
If it cannot be used for a long time, I won't buy it.
Not a week.
It's not a month.
It's more than half a year.
Because once a cat sets its mind on a place, it will keep using it.
If it is not used, it indicates that there is a problem with the design.
It's not the cat's problem.
A friend later asked me: What brand is your cat house?
To be honest, I didn't do any special research at that time either.
I just saw a design called Mewzoom, which looked quite pleasing to the eye.
Unlike pet supplies.
It's more like normal furniture.
This is very important to me.
Because I don't want my home to look like a pet store.
I think it looks like home.
Now every night, I have a fixed scene
I've finished brushing my teeth.
Turn off the lights.
Lie down.
Biscuit would come over from the end of the bed.
Jump gently into that wooden cat condo.
Make a circle.
Get down.
After a while, I could hear its very, very soft snoring.
That sound was particularly soft.
Like an old refrigerator.
But for some reason, it's very reassuring.
If you are also considering buying a cat condo, I just want to give you a particularly simple piece of advice
Don't look at advertisements.
Don't look at the photo
Look at your cat first.
Take a look at where it usually likes to stay the most.
If it's always by your bedside.
Then put cat house beside the bed.
If it likes Windows.
Then put it near the window.
Don't force the cat to adapt to the furniture.
Adapt the furniture to the cat.
It took me several years to learn this sentence.
Finally, let me say a very true thing
I have driven school buses for 18 years in my life.
I have seen all kinds of children.
I have also met all kinds of parents.
Many people always want to buy the most expensive things.
But what is truly useful is often the simplest design.
A stable cat condo.
A quiet little space.
A position not far from you.
That's enough.
And my only regret now is --
I didn't think of this earlier.