I have two cats: Poppy, the mum, who is about a year and a half old, and her kitten Cutie, who is around six months.
They're currently indoor cats, they have completely different personalities and — rather inconveniently — completely different opinions about what constitutes an excellent purchase.
Cutie wants to chase things, climb things and drink running water.
Poppy would quite like everyone to calm down and provide her with somewhere comfortable to sit.
Over time I've bought a fair amount of cat stuff. Some of it has been genuinely brilliant. Some of it has been enthusiastically ignored because, obviously, the cardboard box it arrived in was superior.
These are the things that have actually earned their place in our house.
The stainless-steel water fountain
This has been brilliant.
Both cats drink from it, but Cutie especially absolutely loves it.
It has also largely stopped her drinking out of the kids' water glasses, which is a significant bonus because my children seem physically incapable of taking a glass back to the kitchen once they've finished with it.
Before the fountain, Cutie considered every abandoned glass of water around the house a personal drinking station.
Apparently running water of her own was the solution.
Worth it because: they both drink plenty of water, and the kids are less likely to discover a cat's head in their glass.The giant cardboard scratcher
This one belongs to Poppy.
It's essentially a huge L-shaped piece of cardboard and, somehow, she thinks it's fantastic.
Which is also a useful reminder that you can buy cats beautiful elaborate things and sometimes what they really wanted was… cardboard.
She genuinely uses it for scratching, though, which means it's doing exactly what I bought it for.
Worth it because: every scratch here is hopefully one less scratch somewhere considerably more expensive.The cat tree
This is probably the closest my cats have come to agreeing that something I bought was acceptable.
Cutie sleeps right at the top of it every single day.
Does she scratch on the scratching posts?
Of course not.
Apparently that isn't what a cat tree is for.
Poppy, meanwhile, sleeps inside the little cave at the bottom.
So while neither of them necessarily uses it exactly as the manufacturer intended, it gets used constantly — which, in cat-product terms, I consider an enormous success.
Worth it because: both cats use it daily. Just entirely on their own terms.The rechargeable moving ball
Cutie would play with this for hours if the battery allowed it.
It rolls around by itself with a little tail attached and she absolutely loves chasing it.
It's particularly useful because they're indoor cats at the moment and it gives her something active to do without requiring me to personally provide three hours of evening entertainment.
Worth it because: occasionally I would like to sit down.The soft cat carrier
I already owned one of those traditional hard-shell cat carriers.
This one is so much better for us.
The cats seem much happier in it, there's plenty of ventilation and breathing room, and now that they're getting bigger I need to transport them separately anyway.
One unexpectedly useful thing is that it's also much easier to carry. My seven-year-old can actually help me carry Cutie to the vet in this one, which she couldn't realistically do with the big rigid carrier.
It's just made the whole process feel less cumbersome.
Worth it because: vet trips are stressful enough without wrestling a giant plastic box through the door.Cat grass
Because mine aren't going outside at the moment, I really like having cat grass available for them indoors.
More importantly, they actually like it.
And this one has accidentally become a kids' activity too.
I get the kids to seed it for the cats and they absolutely love doing it — so for a few minutes everyone is occupied and I can pretend this was all part of an elaborate parenting plan.
It's inexpensive, easy to grow and gives the cats something green to nibble without me wondering whether they've taken an interest in a houseplant they absolutely shouldn't be eating.
Worth it because: the cats get their own little indoor garden, the kids get to grow it for them, and everyone is entertained. Briefly.Catnip
Not much explanation required here.
They love it.
Sometimes the simplest Amazon purchases are the successful ones.
Worth it because: cats.Mason Cash cat bowls
I have these in a few colours and really like them.
They're sturdy, they look nice enough to leave out and — importantly — they go in the dishwasher.
Anything in my house that can go directly into the dishwasher rather than creating another little cleaning job immediately earns points.
Worth it because: practical, dishwasher-safe and not ugly.Dog poo bags
Stay with me.
I use clumping cat litter and I'm quite particular about keeping the litter tray clean.
Twice a day I go through it, scoop out the wee and poo, put everything straight into one of these bags and take it outside to the bin.
Done.
No lingering smell. No dirty litter sitting around. No complicated system.
Yes, they're technically dog poo bags.
The cats have not complained.
Worth it because: the litter tray doesn't stink, and that is worth considerably more to me than the cost of a poo bag.The silicone feeding mat
My cats eat like pigs.
There really isn't a more sophisticated way of putting it.
They pick bits of food out of their bowls and somehow distribute them around the surrounding area as though they're trying to make dinner last longer by creating a treasure hunt.
The silicone mat catches most of it.
I can pick the mat up, clean it and put it back rather than discovering dried bits of cat food welded to the floor.
Worth it because: I cannot teach them table manners. I can contain the blast radius.