Refined Feline Cat Furniture

If you have a cat, you know all about their preference for surveying their kingdom from the top of a bookshelf or something similar. Every cat I've ever had, has always mysteriously managed to climb my shelves, no matter how impossible it looked. This has always amazed me for two reasons:

1. I've never actually seen them do it.

2. They can do it within a few minute's time, and without knocking everything off the shelves on their way up.

I think most, if not all, cats enjoy this perching thing, and that's where these cat towers come in handy. It used to be really hard to find a decent quality cat tower that didn't look a bit like something your kid made in art class (you know the ones: they look like someone glued leftover carpet to a set of Lincoln Logs) but today you can find really posh stuff. And, let's face it, cat's are snobs, and their owners are usually total pushovers for anything they don't really need. The Refined Feline makes litter box units as well, as you can see below.

You have to admit, this is pretty elegant for cat furniture. The Refined Feline makes the Lotus Tower in several stains, the one shown being mahogany. They also make it in birch and cherry. (The underlying material is actually pine and plywood.)

You do have to put it together yourself, so make sure you have a boyfriend at the time, or someone who's crushing on you and will do it as a sign of devotion. Cos I've put similar things together in the past, and I'm telling you, it can take all day if you're assembly-challenged like I am.

But hoo-ha, look at that final product! It's easy to see why it's been features in the NY Times! It's 69 inches tall (175 cm if you're EU, and a bit over 5' if you need it that way) and fits nicely into a corner as you can see here.

Cost: $294.99

This is a covertly designed litter box that seems to have been designed for your living room or what have you. The furniture bit looks pretty nice, and if you take a look at the second photo, you can see how neat and organized everything is.

As with the Lotus Tower, the Refined Litterbox is made of pine and comes in a mahogany, cherry or birch finish. You'll have to assemble this one too, so treat your handyman nice so he'll do them both for you!

The only issue I'd worry about with this is the potential for a great big mess that would need full scrub-down every week. I worry about this because it doesn't look tall enough to fit a covered box in there -- but I may be wrong about that, and if you have one like that, feel free to say so and I'll edit this.

If it doesn't have room for a covered box... well... I know my cat does the business and then spends some 15 minutes kicking up a storm of litter, and everything goes flying everywhere -- that's why I have the covered box to begin with. If this can fit that, then it looks like a pretty nifty thing.

I'm not sure I'd want it in my living room, but I think it would do well in a home office or spare bedroom -- the one you send your husband off too when he's snoring, perhaps!

Cost: $184.99

This one looks a bit more like a litter box to me -- though I suppose the whole point is making them look less like that, and more like a posh piece of furniture. I wouldn't be shocked to see this in a laundry room or bathroom, and I'd probably remark on how stylish and hygienic it looked.

The box is supposed to be made with odor-control in mind, with an area to use baking soda. Also, the litter catch you see on the floor is optional and does not come with the box, but it's probably something you'd want, cos stepping on cat litter is rarely a joy.

Cost of the box itself: $99.99

Cost of the litter catch: $24.99