AIBU to be annoyed that I've just spent a fortune on my cats and they are NOT Interested?!

[biddyofsuburbia]

I've just bought my cats a lovely new climbing tower / scratching post and a new cat bed and new toys and they still only want to sleep on the sofas and get cat fur all over them and they would rather play with cardboard boxes and eat plastic straws left on the floor by the children and throw up in the toys. ARRRGGH!! I've put this here as it is not serious enough to be on the AIBU page - especially today it's a bit scary in there if you ask me . Anyone for a few lighthearted tales of cash they have wasted on ungrateful pets? Must go to bed actually DH v. tired and stressed and will be writing on AIBU about his selfish wife being on NM all night..

Best thing we've bought for our cats is a £4.99 light beam toy - they love it.

Pets are like children, they'd much rather play with the boxes than the toys! The only worthwhile thing I ever splashed out on for the cats was a tall wicker bed from PAH and the fat one loves it, she sleeps in it most of the day and all night. Everything else, I may as well have thrown the money straight in the bin!

It's the same with dog beds - a few months ago I spent £80 on a 'tough' waterproof dog bed. I was swayed by the promise of 'stab vest' material and thought I was on to a winner. It got delivered in the morning, I took it home at lunchtime, and got home at 4pm to find it totally ripped to shreds by the evil hounds

We finally binned the collection of beds that we (mostly DH, in my defence) had spent an arm and a leg on for our cats.

DCat does now sleep in the (cheapest and scruffiest) remaining one - but only when she is shut in the kitchen and there is nowhere else even vaguely soft to sleep.

I want these for my cats.

Not expensive I know, but then they'll need a new climbing frame and maybe some new food bowls and....

at MrsL! and TTTT I've just bought a bed and that looks better than the one I have! Must go to my own bed but anyone else reading please tell your tales and I'll check back tomorrow! Perhaps I should buy them one of those expensive child sized sofas - might look a bit odd in my utility room though

Biddy you should get one of these!

It won't look odd at all after a week. When it's covered in fur & scratched to shit. Not to mention the filthy paw prints.

WOW at that MrsL!!

That would be fantastic. Of course they'd want their rag blanket on it which might make it look a teensy bit untidy, but I still want one. Or two, one each.

I love the idea of the sofa, but just think of all the cat psychology involved in convincing them that they really, truly, absolutely were not allowed on there before they would adopt it as their favourite place in the entire world.

Cats: the more you spend, the more they laugh at you.

But Stealth, cats know that one already. It doesn't work any more!

LOL at Lemonmeringue - I've sent that to my mum!

Ours were going to be indoor cats, so to make their lives more exciting we bought a cat tree - it's not the worst example you've ever seen, but as a design item it's not great. I don't voluntarily have a framework made of sisal and beige carpetting in my living room. They studiously ignore it most of the time, only use it as a vantage point from which to launch themselves onto our unsuspecting heads. Fast forward a while, and we realise that they are not going to be indoor cats. They're constantly trying to smuggle themselves out of the house, so we bite the bullet and get them a catflap put in. It goes through a wall, so consists of TWO catflaps and five tunnel sections, and was put it very expertly by my dad. And me. I did drilling and everything. Six weeks on, and they are CONSTANTLY IN the bloody house. Getting under my feet and nicking the nice ham. Going out occasionally only to climb the foam padding around the poles around DD's climbing frame, SHREDDING it as they do so. On the sleeping front, they have a radiator bed (which to be fair, they DO like) and a cosy little bed each. Where do they sleep? As far as I can make out, on the hardest and least comfortable bits of floor they can find, all the while looking pathetic and hard done by. Or on our bed or DD's (not on the barely-used spare bed, where would be the fun in cover THAT with hair?)

Ahem. To summarise: what Lemonmeringue said.

Why do we buy good furniture when we have pets? This was my living room last September after weeks of hard slog redecorating. The pale colours were a brave choice with four animals in the house, but I had it all planned out - scrubbable wallpaper, bleachable carpet, indestructable microfibre sofas.... I was very pleased with my pet proofing. What I neglected to think about was that, unless I spent every day washing mud off the walls, cleaning my indestructable microfibre sofas and bleaching my indestructable carpet, it's still going to look filthy! Scrubbable is only good if you can be bothered scrubbing, it seems. I think I confused 'easy clean' with 'self clean'. Should have bought everything in mud brown or labrador black. Especially as the animals are so fond of their new furniture! In fact the dogs think I bought the extra sofa just for them

But it'll be a sad day when I don't have muddy pawprints to come home to anymore, so I don't mind too much

hehe! MrsL your living room looks gorgeous thanks for the photos - the dogs/cats clearly think so too. Someone slap me because I actually thought the chaise long would be a bit cool too - I could pretend it was for little humans.

Sympathise with the cleaning though - we actually had a child whose asthma is set off by cats come round the other day - never hoovered so much furniture in my life! Perhaps I should just forget about the house and go and get some dogs as well. Or move to the country where it is (or is it?) normal to have a house covered in mud and fur!

Their favourite places to lie are actually on some long black suede boots of mine (nice - I was thinking a bit of cat fur was just what they needed) OR the Tesco hessian shopping bags: if either of those are left lying about they are on/in like a shot.

Lemonmeringue: I am going to write that on the chalk board in my kitchen to stop me next time I am heading off to the pet shop. One look at their minxy little cat faces and I know you are oh so right!

Except for the cat torch thing. That sounds good...

Dontcallmebaby how do they 'look hard done by'? I think you should post a photo

Like the cushions MrsL. Very chic

I do like my black labrador sofa accessories - hopefully it'll set a trend

put catnip on

'Cats: the more you spend, the more they laugh at you. '

That's very good lemonmeringue

My dog eats his toys the day he gets them. The Kong is lasting a while though. He has had it a month and it's only half gone. The Giggly Ball lasted half an hour.

He now only gets toys from the 99p bin in the local pet store. About three or four a week.

MrsL123 - I know someone who didn't actually realise that though 20 years of golden retriever ownership she had gradually acquired golden retriever coloured carpets, sofas, coats, etc, etc - until she got a black and white puppy and the hairs started showing on everything

I have to say - even plus dogs, your sofas look impressively clean - or am I not looking closely enough? Our cat delights in finding new places to hide which I never find until there is a witness to what is clearly months weeks worth of fur build-up - she and DD have a running battle ATM as to whether DCat is "allowed" to sleep in DD's room (DD says no, DCat couldn't give two hoots what DD says - DS says DCat can sleep on his bed - DCat says that's no fun)

Stealthsquiggle those photos were taken the weekend the room was finished - it didn't take them long to get comfortable! Now they're kind of patchy mucky-paw coloured with a dog hair coating It's that microsuede stuff so it does hoover and wipe quite well, when I can be bothered doing them! We started off with matching colour fleece throws to protect them, but that soon went out the window when we were needing to change them every other day, and we end up using whatever is lying around. So today we have pink polkadot ones

I'm hiring one of those rug doctor things on Thursday so I can give everywhere a good clean before my mum comes up for a visit - so I can pretend I'm not such a slob!

And that's what I love about cats. Soooo contrary. I think it's because I wish I could be more like them. Instead I'm like a dog.."Pleaaaaase like me! Oooh, you patted my head, I'm sooo happy!"

But YANBU for being annoyed.

this is the sort of lazer toy I was talking about

www.canineconcepts.co.uk/item---Catch-the-Light-LASER-Cat-Toy--laser-cat-toy---cats

we've trialled it on 2 persians, 3 mainecoons and 2 somalis all of them can't resist playing - best of all you just sit there and press the button

No chance Romanarama, if I get a camera within several feet of them they'll either swipe it or instantly roll onto their backs and do 'goofy' instead of 'hard done by'. Mostly the look consists of bundling up looking like a black&white fur-covered oven-ready chicken on a vinyl or laminate floor mere INCHES away from a cosy basket. Weirdos.