A Surprise Gift for Minuet

Minuet received a surprise yesterday: a new, custom-made cat-tree.

As readers may recall, Madame likes to view the world from the top of the bookcases in the library. She also enjoys snoozing there, especially on the carpeted top of the low bookcase under the window. She ascended to these heights via the back of the couch. However, I couldn’t think that this was a comfortable means of travel for her old joints. The descent, which relied heavily on gravity, must have been particularly jarring to aged bones.

So I had a cat-tree made that would take her years into consideration. The platforms are only six inches apart, rather than the usual nine to eleven. Consequently, there are more than on the average tree. I thought this would assist her climbing. It has been placed between the couch and the bookcases and, as may be observed, allows easy access both to the lower and higher cases.

The important thing now is to get Minuet to use her new furniture / tool. This may have been aided, inadvertently, by youth; Auric, to be precise. He continues to try to invade the library (principally because he’s told he shouldn’t, I imagine.) Because Min must meet the residents sooner or later, I have been allowing them to penetrate her sanctum, under supervision. This morning, Auric nimbly climbed the new cat-tree and stepped off on to the bookcases.

This angered Minuet, who yelled and bawled at him. After a minute, I did remove the youngster, but I noticed that, after his departure, Min continued to stare at the cat-tree, where she had seen the offending cat. She stared at it for almost a minute, perhaps not noticing its height before. Twenty minutes later, I passed the open door of the library and noticed Minuet on one of the bookcases. She may have used, as in the past, the arm and back of the couch for part of her climb but, because of the tree’s placement, there is no way she could have simply stepped off the couch onto a bookcase. She needed, at least for part of the journey, to use the tree. The thought of using it at all was the first step, and she seems to have taken it.

Another worry was that Minuet, who is heavier than she should be and consequently a little bulky, might not be able to negotiate the twisting of the steps. But Renn also visited the library and investigated the new tree. Though much thinner than he once was, my big boy is still long, and had no trouble climbing the tree.

A beginning has been made. With time, I think Minuet will use the tree habitually, and her life in the Cosy Apartment will be a little easier.