{"id":4968,"date":"2021-05-18T03:30:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T11:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=4968"},"modified":"2021-05-18T03:30:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T11:30:58","slug":"newsday-tuesday-enrichment-for-the-indoor-cat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=4968","title":{"rendered":"Newsday Tuesday \u2013 Enrichment for the Indoor Cat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Many of us keep our cats indoors only. Some provide outdoor enrichment through harness and leash-training or an enclosed catio. But for many indoor cats, their only experiences beyond the confines of the house are views from the windows and a car ride to the veterinarian once in a while. Our Olivia is a year old now, and still very much a kitten at times. She gets the zoomies and she tears around the house like a crazy cat. Sometimes she meows and meows\u2014probably out of boredom. When this happens, I get creative and find a way to spice up \"\"her world through play\u2014usually wild, active play. One of her favorite midday activities is chasing her bumpy rubber ball up and down the hallway.
\nI wondered what else we could do to enrich her life and 16-year-old Sophie\u2019s. I envision a kitty-cat stair case leading to platforms and ledges around the walls of the house for them to explore. In fact, I saw Olivia eyeing our wall of shelves last night. Gads, I don\u2019t need her trying to create a jungle-gym amongst my ceramic and glass and other fragile collectibles. I\u2019ve already removed a valance that she is now tall enough to reach and was getting her claws caught in. When someone \"\"gives me flowers, I often delegate them to the deck outside as so many flowers are toxic to cats. So we make a lot of concessions around here for the cats, but what more can we do to provide additional enrichment for Olivia and Sophie? Here are a few ideas I\u2019ve used and that I\u2019ve found through research:<\/p>\n