Monday, June 6, 2016

Does Your Cat Like to Get High or Lay Low?

WAFFLES:  *insert Tarzan yell here*



KATIE:  Waffles, what are you DOING???

WAFFLES: I'm practicing yodeling like Tarzan. 

KATIE:  I'm almost scared to ask. 



WAFFLES:  Ask what?

KATIE:  Well first off, lets get one thing straight. Tarzan doesn't yodel. 




WAFFLES:  What do you mean he doesn't yodel?

KATIE:  He just... yells. 

WAFFLES:  Are you sure because I–



KATIE:  And all yodeling aside. Tarzan? Really? Do you even know who Tarzan is???



WAFFLES:  Duh. He's the yodeling guy that likes to swing from the cat trees. Just like me. Maybe I should get me one of those loin cloth things. You know, for the ladies. 



KATIE:  And now you know why I stick to the lowlands.




Tree Dweller or Bush Dweller?
Did you know that some cats are natural "tree dwellers" while others are happiest as "bush dwellers?" And we're not talking about jungles and landscaping. These are terms that Jackson Galaxy coined and uses when offering advice to cat guardians. He explains how important it is to understand your cat's personality and preferences so that you can create a home environment that offers plenty of places for cats to be themselves.

This is especially important in multi-cat homes.

Tree Dweller cats love and need vertical space. 
They like to climb high and observe the world around them. Positioning shelves, trees and climbing structures by windows can provide hours of entertainment supervising the comings and goings of the neighborhood. For some, this can also mean staking claim to some vertical territory away from other cats in the family. 

Bush Dweller cats prefer spots lower to the ground. 
They often love hidey holes and covered beds. Many bush dwellers can be shy and need to have plenty of places to go where they feel safe from stress triggers like loud noises or unwanted confrontations from other cats. Not only is it important to give cats spaces to retreat to, it's important to respect those spaces. No matter how much a visitor might want to 'meet' kitty, if kitty doesn't want to be social, any attempt to force it can result in even more stress. 

Waffles Flies High while Katie Lays Low
It's probably no surprise that Waffles is the resident Tree Dweller while Katie finds her zen as a bush dweller. When it comes to Waffles, *Ain't no cat tree high enough...♩♫♩♫*. He loves his vertical space and while he also loves approaching (and often bothering) Katie in the lowlands, it's clear he enjoys that the cat trees are his and his alone. That doesn't mean he spends all his time at 5' or higher. He enjoys his kitty loungers and Sleepypods too. But he's more territorial and sometimes even vocal when it comes to his vertical space. Hence the yodeling.

Katie has always been a shy girl. She startles easily and isn't a fan of visitors. She loves hanging out with Glogirly and Gloman, soaking up affection, but she needs her alone time too. Sometimes that means a safe retreat away from Waffles. She's got cushy beds, blankets and cubbies throughout the house and inside the bedrooms so there's always a safe place to go. 

Do you have any tree dwellers of bush dwellers in your feline family?



30 comments:

  1. Parker likes high places, but sometimes she needs help getting up or down. The first time she found the roof of the shed, I had to get a ladder to get her down. Today, when she wants to go to the high shelves in the closet, I bend over and she jumps on my back on her way up (and sometimes down).

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  2. Sherpa climbs the highest and I often find him on the yurt walls. Harry used to go up there too until his accident. Now he does his tree dwelling outside in actual trees. Pumpkin is usually in my sweater drawer or under the bathtub and Stinky goes halfway in between.

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  3. Jake is a tree dwelling Tarzan at 7 years old. 😛 EggNog (16) has always been a bush dweller with rare trips to tree dwelling. Cooper (6) likes both tree and bush dwelling.

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  4. We're all tree dwellers here and luv gettin up high. Sometimes Angie stays low, but even she likes to get up high a lot.

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  5. You know, neither Binga nor I conform to this - we are both kind of all over the place! If we think it is interesting, whether it is high or low... we go there! Boodie leans toward being a bush dweller (makes sense, since she is shy), but even her favorite spot is on the dining room table, which is pretty well out in the open and not particularly low!

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  6. Vashti likes to be up high to get away from the munchkin Jonah. MOL. Cat tree or top of the frig will do!

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  7. We're looking forward to seeing you in your loin cloth Waffles.

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  8. We are all primarily tree dwellers. The best hiding places in the closet are down low, so even tree dwellers adapt when it's necessary, though.

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  9. I have both in my home. Have a great week.
    Sue B

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  10. Lita likes to be up high. She spends a lot of time in her cat tree (though not all the way at the top). She also likes to survey the room from the top of my computer chair. Carmine is a bit harder to pin. He loves high places and low places. As he gets older, he tends to stay near the ground more, but I wonder if that's more because of his aging joints than his preference. Don't worry, he is already on arthritis medication. :)

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  11. Wally is definitely a get high kinda cat. Ernie likes to be up high too, but likes low places too. Zoey likes low spots...ones she can hide in.

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  12. We're pretty much all tree dwellers. Allie will sometimes be a bush dweller too.

    The Florida Furkids

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  13. we suspect that if mom put up more vertical space, Spud would never come down and Daiquiri would use it like a space race track MOL

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  14. We all like to climb high sometimes but Chey is the most bush dwelling of all of us and Ichiro is the most tree climbing of all of us!

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  15. My kitty sister Pigeon is definitely a tree dweller! She spends so much time on top of the kitchen cabinets that Momma finally just put beds and toys up there for her.

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  16. Katie just hope there will be no yodeling involved
    Lily & Edward

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  17. I have 2 cats, one likes high and the other prefers low although she does go high on occasion.

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  18. Our cats at home fortunately get along well with each other and share spaces high and low.
    But at PAWS, having a super highway above the floor makes all the difference in keeping the peace and extending the available space vertically. The cats are more relaxed too. It's cool to see all the veteran cats up on the shelves and wall hammocks watching newcomers.
    xxoo
    Maggie

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  19. guyz....ya never noe wear Dai$y iz......sum times herz next ta de ceeling & otherz...sheez ground level & chillaxin ina korner....me...boomer.....eye due grate ta jump "mid way" at me age !! ☺☺☺♥

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  20. I am both, and Zorro is more a bush dweller : I love to climb high and sleep in high spots, but I love to crawl under the blankies and sleep there as well. Purrs, Pixie

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  21. Ya'll be cute as ever. Truth is Ragdolls in general are low dwelling kitties cuz they be so large. But, me luvs to hang at da top of me's cat tree.

    Luv ya'

    Dezi

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  22. All of my cats have been bush dwellers until Mudpie...she is definitely a tree dweller!

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  23. I am the high cat, Derby was the low boy. Now that I am an only cat, I do both.

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  24. When I was younger, I wanted to climb on the ceiling. I was always on the highest cabinet in the condo. That was before catification. Now I mostly stay closer to the ground.

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  25. Saku is definitely our climber, while Sami and Sasha prefer staying close to the floor. They also prefer boxes, while Saku would rather sprawl out on the floor or the couch. I have to say they definitely fit the definitions!

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  26. We have bush dwellers in our house, with an occasional venture into a tree.

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  27. Cody is primarily a tree dweller, but he also has his bush moments! catchatwithcarenandcody

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  28. Adorable skit! Especially the line about the loin cloth! Hahahahahah...we calico ladies love orange "high cats"!

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  29. With 5 of us having both available is very important! Coco is definitely a bush dweller. She will get on the dining room table (cough), but that's as high as she will go. She prefers her kitty cubes, and loves to sleep in beds stashed all over the apartment. Vali will get in the window sill and sleep in chairs, but doesn't like high spaces at all; she prefers to sleep on Z-girls fancy ottoman in the front room. Manhattan solves both levels! She's a climber and has gone on the highest shelves and put her paws up on the wall howling to go higher, but also will sleep in the corner of a closet as well as in a cat bed...Lulu does the same--climbs everywhere, Bessie hasn't taken to the shelves yet but did start jumping onto the armoire in the bedroom--so it's just a matter of time before she tries the catwalk! Having both is key for us, as we all hide like the munchkins in Oz when the doorbell sounds. Manhattan and Waffles sound the most similar, and Coco and Katie seem to share the same preferences!

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