Help with recommended cat equipment please - I need everything, fast!

[minipie]

Sooo we are off to see two rescue cats this weekend and one of them, if we like her, we would be taking home pretty much straight away!!! So excited!

But... I don’t have anything! Except a catflap, which will be kept locked for a while anyway. I thought we’d be looking for a while so didn’t get organised.

Please can you recommend to me any particular cat bed, cat tower, and scratching post you’ve found cats particularly seem to like? Bowls - are water fountains better or not necessary for most cats?

I was thinking one or two of those mostly enclosed felt ball type of beds so she can hide away a bit?

Any recommendations much appreciated.

My cat carrier from Amazon has a removable bottom for accidents. I got a small dog one, which is more spacious, and doubled up as a sleeping space when they were kittens.

Other than that we have a basic scratching pole from the local farm store, really cheap, and that's about it.

Bowls were old saucers, dishes. Started out using newspaper underneath, but now we don't get papers, we have a couple of wipeable ones.

Litter tray (biggest and deepest you can get), and litter for the first few weeks, and then hopefully out and about.

Update: we have a cat!!!

So far she seems not to have read the rule book - we have put her in a separate room as instructed but instead of hiding away she wants lots of attention and is dying to explore the rest of the house ! Although we are keeping her in for tonight anyway. She seems utterly unphased by my two cat mad children and is well on the way to winning over non cat person DH (I think it helps they look alike - slender and ginger).

So far the only fly in the ointment is that she seems quite keen on clawing the carpets... I have a cardboard scratcher and have sprinkled with a bit of catnip... or am I meant to use the whole sachet??

Any tips on a more permanent scratching post/thing for cats who like carpet?

Do you have horizontal scratchers? We have some from zooplus

Carpet samples OP, my home is covered in them! Although she scratches less now she's allowed out. Otherwise a cat tree that's tall enough for her to stretch right up.

Ours also settled in very quickly - i came home on day 1 (DH and DD had collected her from the rescue in the morning) and she was already sleeping on the sofa!

Get a tall heavy scratcher. I've got one from Kalven. They are not cheap but really good quality and last years.

If she's keen to explore I'd let her do it!

Thank you! I am putting in a zooplus order tonight as we just got the basics for today. I will definitely get a tall scratching post and/or cat tree and a horizontal scratcher. Not heard of Kalven but will have a look, thank you. The cardboard thingy seems too light and moveable to be appealing? Though she was very interested by the catnip.

Carpet samples - I have some offcuts somewhere I think... but maybe I should get some loop pile ones that will be more appealing to her than ours...

Re exploring - shelter said keep her in the one room overnight and then let her explore tomorrow so will try that, the girls will be at school so it will be quiet here for her to look round her new domain. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will have a cat snoozing on the sofa as she is definitely a company loving cat 🤞That’s if “non cat person” DH hasn’t got her on his lap... she’s been on his lap already today would you believe!

Thanks for all your help!

Female ginger cat ?
She'll have her own Rule Book.

Rule One will be Appreciate how unusual I am

I looked for statistics , it varies . Only 20% -30% ginger cats are female (but I have only ever met males )

Good Luck , sounds like her plan is world dominance starting with your DH !

I have these

First is pets at home and other 2 are zooplus

Also have this and my 2 used to use it a lot and sleep up top together. Now they just use it as a scratching post

She knows who she needs to win over.

So far she seems not to have read the rule book

No - you haven't read the rule book. We haven't had photos yet.

I was about to ask where the photos are too.

I'm not sharing any advice until I have a photo to ensure my advice is appropriate

📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷 🐈 📷

ha! photos here you go

more photos

She looks just like the 🐈 emoji

As you can see she’s not exactly hiding

She was wandering around meowing a lot, I was worried she was stressed.

Turns out I just wasn’t paying her enough attention....

She’s come and sat on my lap!! 🤗🤗

Oh, she's a beauty!

She knows who she needs to win over.

Indeed TW2013. I knew we’d found our cat when DH signalled to me from her cattery pen “I think she likes me!” with a big thumbs up. This from a man who a few weeks ago didn’t see the point of cats...

Oh, she's a beauty!

Isn’t she? She asks that you kindly ignore the shaved fur square from her op, as you’ll see she’s ensured all subsequent photos are from the other side.

Gorgeous. Are you sticking with one? I think i misread ypur post i thought only one was ready to come and the other was following. Whats her name?

Her name is Hetty - previous owners (who handed her in because they were going away over Christmas ?!) called her Hatty so we have only altered it a little.

Yes I think we’re sticking with one... Much as I would love to have another (eg the other one we met who wasn’t ready to go yet, still feeding kittens) I have experience of two cats not getting on and don’t want to risk that. And I think DH is more of a one cat kinda guy.

Crikey. I used to put mine in a cattery when I went away. Never occurred to me to re-home him.