Furniture meets cat lovers for modern designs that help you perfect your work-pet balance: Part 2

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How many cats do you have at home? Since you are already here, I assume you are either a cat-slave or a cat entertainer. My cat is a middle-aged boy who truly believes he is great at trekking around all the furniture in the house. From day one, when he scooted about the house as a kitten intent on scratching and peeling away every bit of fabric from my sofa to my curtain, to the current day – when every new bag of plastic or a chair gets scrutinized by the sniffy nose and scratchy paws, my cat owns my furniture before me. Now, when I saw the furniture that you will read about in the below article, I knew how much he would like it. It is like having a Japanese cat-cafe at my home-office (I knew this day would come one day). Now keep your paws on your mouse and scroll below!

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In all the desk designs I’ve seen over the years, this is a first for me! It’s called ‘Ascend’ and it’s been created by Dan Devine for all the cat ladies and fellas out there. Like any cat person will tell you, the moment you give attention to anything but your furry friend, they’ll find a way to lounge on your keyboard or knock over your utensils until it’s back on them! Designed with this in mind, the wood desk has been crafted with multiple ramps and landings for cats to perch up and play. If you can’t fight ’em, invite ’em!

The idea behind the Gatrimonial bed frame by CatLife is that it should be a comforting space for the pet and owner. The cat gets a secure, comfortable den, and does not feel as if you are invading his/her space. The furniture also provides plenty of stimuli to keep him/her entertained. I can already hear my roommate’s pet darting through his maze while I lie on the bed above him. Perhaps this cat-friendly furniture will encourage some casual bonding time between the two of us.

The Cat Flat has been carefully designed based on the advice of Sweden’s first cat psychologist, Susanne Hellman Holmström, who brought to light the 10 necessities apart from basic essentials that cats need for the best emotional and physical health. The needs range from scratching, cleaning fur, playing, discovering, being social, etc. and Cat Flat takes care of them all keeping in mind they spend most of their time indoors. Think of it as a hybrid of a home and a jungle gym for your cat. Based on the cat psychologist’s advice, Hellman Holmström collaborated with interior designer Eleonor Moschevitz created the details, aesthetics, and functionality of the Cat Flat.

LuluPet is the first smart cat litter box that uses excretory image recognition to track your cat’s health with 95% accuracy – yes, it means through their potty habits. More than 30% of the cats suffer from urinary tract diseases in their life and pet owners don’t catch it till it’s late. Cats inherently hide their pain so it makes it even more difficult to spot what is wrong especially with illnesses like kidney disease, heart disease, and urinary tract problems early on. With LuluPet you have more control over your cat’s health and you will be alerted of any irregularity in real-time whether it is a minor issue or a potentially major one. LuluPet uses AI image recognition to help identify urinary tract problems and a built-in camera, infrared sensor, and AI chips to analyze different types of feces.

Coming in at 8 x 2.7 m, with a steel frame and aluminum exterior, the Cyril House is a double-decker one-bedroom with a full-size kitchen, lounge area, bathroom, and home office. Resting on a double-axle trailer, this tiny home comes with a high ceiling that opens up the tiny home even further for you and your feline friend. Mounted between the office and the loft bedroom, carpeted shelves stagger between one another for your cat to traverse while you study or get work done in the home office upstairs. Across the way, you’ll find the main queen-sized bedroom with plenty of storage space and even a hollowed-out rectangular space so that you can get ready for your day without hitting your head against the ceiling. Moving down the ladder to the living area of the tiny house, the full-sized kitchen is outfitted with a built-in gas heater, dishwasher, four-burner gas stovetop, oven, full-sized refrigerator, and plenty of storage space and pantries.

People in small living spaces use low furniture (such as rugs, floor chairs) to build intimate relaxing areas while cats prefer covert spaces, but due to the limited space, there are not many places to hide or play. CatYou in a Circle by Jack Dogson (ironic huh!)didn’t want to separate the pets from their owners so it is designed to cleverly bring them together while also maintaining boundaries. The hollow armrests and backrest offer cats a playground and hiding territory while the coffee table provides a place to sleep. The woven bamboo texture makes it possible for owners to see their cats even when they are hiding and play with through its holes. The size of holes is different in different parts of the furniture to adapt to the needs of the pet as well as humans. The backrest holes are smaller to make the cats feel more secure. But holes above are bigger so that when people lean on the sofa, they can see through the backrest and find their cats underneath.

 Designed to be flat-packed, the Catzz is an icosahedral shelter for cats that comes with multiple triangular panels that come together to form the enclosed shelter. The clever bit, however, is the fact that the Catzz bed actually looks like a minimalist cat head, complete with two pointy ears! Made from individual felt panels, the flat-packed bed can easily be assembled in minutes. When put together, it forms the perfect haven for your kitten, being a combination of robust and sturdy yet fuzzy and comfortable. The Catzz bed even comes with a dangling toy that you can suspend from the bed’s ear (for the cat to periodically play with), and when the bed does get dirty, it can easily be disassembled and machine-washed. Paw-sitively delightful, isn’t it?!

Are you a cat person? Well, I am, and if you are a cat person or a cat owner like me, you know the amount of attention and care that goes into looking after them. They’re fussy and prissy, worthy of all the luxuries the world has to offer! But what about the pet-owners? While our cats hold the center of our attention, we don’t want to compromise the aesthetic value of our homes as well. To please our feline friends and their owners, product designer Yoh Komiyama collaborated with Tokyo-based Rinn to create the NEKO Cat Tree, and to be honest, it’s pretty modern and fancy!

Designed to constantly pique a cat’s curiosity, the Cheerble is a board-and-ball combination that is to cats what pinball is to humans. It features a hyperactive vibrating ball that darts around a board, while your cat constantly follows it as a predator follows its prey. At the heart of the Cheerble board game is its ball, a durable ping-pong ball-shaped device with a synthetic fiber coating that almost looks like an abstract mouse. The ball, with built-in motors and lights, can be set to one of three active settings, causing it to dart around chaotically, grabbing a cat’s attention in the process. Paired along with the ball is the Cheerble board, which comes in two variants, both with corrugated cardboard bases – the same material used to make cat-scratching posts. Owners get to choose between Pool-type boards, which turn your cats into poolmasters, working the table and trying to pot the 8-Ball, and between the Maze-type, which features actual obstacles, and a secondary distracting toy to truly keep your feline friends constantly engaged.

The Circle Zero from PLUTO is a smart litter box that takes care of your cat’s business. Designed to be fully automated, fully enclosed, and exceptionally silent, the litter box comes with a completely enclosed design to provide a private experience. Sensors on the box detect the presence of the cat, and wait for a full 7 minutes after they’re done to automatically (and silently) scoop the waste from the litter and store it separately while completely containing and eliminating any odor too. Once the waste compartment is full, you can use any bag or liner to collect it and throw it away