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How I Cat-Proofed My Home Before It Was Too Late (Mostly)
In the first week of having Mango, I lost one plant, one phone charger, a ceramic mug, and the structural integrity of a blind.
None of these things were accidents in the traditional sense. They were outcomes. Mango approached each one with intention, assessed it briefly, and then dealt with it.
I had done zero cat-proofing before he arrived because I assumed cats were careful, elegant creatures who moved through spaces without disturbing things. This assumption did not survive contact with Mango.
The plants situation
I had to research which of my houseplants were toxic to cats, which is a sentence I did not expect to be writing before I got one.
Several common houseplants are harmful to cats — lilies in particular are serious — and others are fine but will simply be destroyed rather than harmed by. Mango ate two spider plants not because they are toxic (they are not) but because he found the texture interesting.
I moved everything that mattered out of reach and accepted that anything I could not move was a gamble.
Cables are a particular problem
Phone chargers. Laptop cables. The cable behind the television that I genuinely thought was inaccessible.
Young cats in particular are drawn to cables — the texture, the movement when you pull them. Cable management boxes are genuinely useful. Bitter apple spray on cables you cannot hide also works, though Mango treated it more as a challenge than a deterrent.
High places need more thought than you think
Before Mango arrived, I had a bookshelf with things arranged on it purely for aesthetics. Candles, small pottery, a plant.
Within forty-eight hours, Mango had explored every shelf and redistributed most of it. I had made the mistake of creating what was, from a cat's perspective, an extremely fun obstacle course at height.
Anything fragile that you like should be in a cupboard, not on a shelf. This is the rule. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Plan for their adult size before you buy anything
This is the thing I most wish I had done before Mango arrived. I bought a cat tree based on how big he was at eight weeks old. It was, to put it generously, charmingly optimistic.
At sixteen pounds, Mango looks at that cat tree the way I look at children's furniture — technically functional but really not built for him.
Knowing roughly how big your cat will be as an adult helps you make better decisions about furniture, flaps, carriers, and shelving before you waste money on the wrong sizes.
The cat growth calculator gives you a projected adult weight based on your kitten's current age and weight — genuinely useful for planning before you spend money on things they will immediately outgrow.
The things you simply have to accept
Some things cannot be fully cat-proofed. They can only be grieved.
Mango destroyed the corner of one sofa cushion in the first month. Luna chewed through the corner of a rug. Pickles, in her younger years, shredded the back of a curtain that I had not thought to protect because who thinks to protect the back of a curtain.
The house is more robust now. I buy things with durability in mind. I have stopped placing objects anywhere I would be genuinely upset to find on the floor.
This is not defeat. It is adaptation.