Dr. Karyn's Feline Tried and Tested Home Improvements

Hi, I'm Dr. Karyn! Read my introduction to learn more about me and meet my five hilarious cats: Clutch, Cyril, Alex, Zelda, and Zazzles.

Living with five dogs and five cats does involve a fair amount of cleaning, and Husband and I take particular pride in the fact that people are often surprised when they find out just how many pets we have. That comes down to a combination of housework, a lack of human children, and maintaining a (relatively) stress-free household (when it comes to the animals, at least!).

Apart from the obvious pet hair overload, a big factor that will influence the sort of olfactory impression your home makes is pheromone levels. More specifically, cat pee. One of the most common complaints from multicat households is inappropriate urination, due to territorial spraying and marking or cats peeing outside the litter box as a result of stress-induced cystitis. As a general rule, cats that live together will try to avoid physical attacks, favoring more subtle methods of chemical warfare. Cats also don’t like to let on when they feel threatened or stressed, so the pressures of this sort of conflict get channeled through the bladder wall.

What does this have to do with home improvements? Well, not to brag (and I know I’m tempting fate by writing this), but in a modest-sized house with five unrelated cats, we have never had a case of cystitis or territorial urination. And I think that it’s largely due to some of the little home improvements we’ve made over the years. Admittedly, they’re not all minor things, like the cat enclosure, for example, but they are mostly inexpensive and easily implemented changes and additions that virtually anyone can make.

Height & Hiding Places

One thing that will stress out your indoor cat the most is feeling like they can’t get away from each other, from people, or, in our case, from dogs. We have lots of different shelves, cupboards, and scratching posts that our cats can use to get up out of the way, and we allow them on our kitchen countertops as well – except when we’re cooking, of course.

We have beds tucked in various places, including my wardrobe, on window sills, and in the catio, so there are always plenty of quiet spots for making biscuits or having a quick snooze. The cats are lucky that Husband is quite handy (being the owner of a handyman business!) and has built a brilliant outdoor enclosure for them, with artificial grass, shelves, and a sneaky entrance into the house located behind the sofa. It’s fun to watch the Chihuahuas, Ned and Fred, trying to figure out where the cats have magically appeared from!

Places for Claws and Head Rubs

If you live with cats, expect that your carpet and furniture will suffer some damage, as it is unrealistic to think otherwise. Some feel that the preservation of their soft furnishings is enough to justify the mutilation of their pets, but declawing is not something that any cat should have to endure. By providing alternative scratching surfaces of different types, textures, heights, and locations, you can at least hope to minimize this damage.

These wall-mounted posts are a favorite of mine; they’re inexpensive and unobtrusive, and our cats absolutely love them. We have several of them placed around the house so that the cats have plenty of different places to scratch, and they are all showing signs of plenty of use.

Another pitfall of having multiple cats is the greasy marks that tend to accumulate on wall edges and door frames, where our cats love to rub their heads. They do this because it feels nice and allows them to leave a little pheromone calling card behind. Again, this isn’t something we can stop, but by installing a few of these little door frame brushes, we have been able to provide a more appealing option that the cats absolutely love to use.

Dog-Free Zones

We are incredibly lucky that, by and large, there is little friction between the cats and dogs, but Kodah, our Malinois x Shepherd, does like to chase them from time to time. It’s important that the cats have somewhere that they know they won’t be disturbed by any canine intrusions, which is why my office doubles as the ‘cat room’ (or perhaps it is the cat room that doubles as my office).

We’ve put in a baby gate, another really cheap item (especially if you can pick one up from FB Marketplace!) that allows the cats to have a space that is completely dog-free, with the freedom to come and go as they please.

As Kodah still likes to use his crate as his chillout zone, we occasionally lock him in to give the cats some shepherd-free time in the whole house, too.

Pheromones and Cleaning

Another important (and affordable) part of keeping our house smelling great is using the right cleaning products. Because we allow the cats on the countertops, we always keep a powerful antibacterial cleaner under the sink, one that is strong enough to keep things clean but is also safe for use around pets. The other two items we try never to run out of are Febreze pet odor eliminator and an enzymatic cleaner like Hepper’s Bio-Enzyme Stain & Odor Remover. One of the biggest mistakes pet owners make is using a regular detergent to clean up pet mess, which usually just masks the smell. If you’re dealing with any sort of pet odor, particularly around litter boxes, or if you have a Chihuahua that is proving to be quite challenging to toilet train, you need to use an enzymatic cleaner that will actually break down the particles. This will keep your pet from feeling inclined to use the same spot and help avoid the build-up of animal smells over time.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like an infomercial!

Having a house full of pets can be wonderful, but it can be challenging, as well. If you share your home with cats, take some time to see your house through their eyes. Are there places to hide and jump onto? Do they have lots of places to scratch their claws, or are they expected to find one single cat tree? Do they have somewhere they can get away from people, kids, dogs, or other cats?

And if you’re worried that your home is not smelling its best, I recommend investing in a few bottles of an enzymatic cleaner to give the place a thorough de-stinking. Your nose, and your guests, will thank me.