2024: ready, set, go! Can you feel it, fabCats? Your fur has just danced on scratchers during the carnival, dug through beaches on vacation, and helped you choose Christmas decorations, and now it’s time to get ready for another year of crazy adventures. At myKotty, we plan to experience it with you under the motto: HAPPY CAT. Are you ready? To kick things off, we’ve prepared a truly fabCat challenge: 5 tasks to make your fur purr with happiness every day. Ready to take up the challenge?

CHALLENGE 1: Play with your cat every day for a minimum of 15 minutes

Playtime is ingrained in the DNA of our furballs. It’s a natural need that can’t be replaced by another episode of cat TV. Young and old, active and lazy cats – each has the little hunter’s engine within, activated during the hunt for a favorite fishing rod, ball, or catnip-filled kicker. This year, fabCats, take on the challenge and play with your cat every day, for at least 15 minutes. Why?

Play is not just a way to entertain a bored cat. It’s a means of satisfying one of the primal cat instincts, releasing emotions, and strengthening the bond between the cat and the Guardian.

Of course, every cat has its preferences when it comes to play. Some furballs need more, others less. Kittens enjoy more intense play – shorter but more frequent. Older cats often focus mainly on observation and delivering one precise strike to finish the job. Some fur might not want to play without catnip, while others don’t react to herbs at all. Playing with a cat can take the form of a quick hunt for a string, fetching a ball, searching for treats hidden in a sniffing toy, or training kicks on a Kung Fu cat toy. But whether you play intensely or calmly, it’s important that play meets the cat’s needs and is always part of the cat’s day plan. The happiness of your fur depends on it, fabCats 🙂

Learn more about playing with a cat from our article: https://blog.mykotty.pl/en/2020/04/28/playing-with-a-cat-that-is-how-do-you-play-to-save-yourself-not-get-bored/ 

CHALLENGE 2: Take your cat for a thorough check-up at the vet

When was the last time you took your cat to the doctor, fabCat? Not in the context of a forced visit because the cat suddenly started vomiting, fell off the scratching post, and their paw hurts, or appetite problems appeared. We’re talking about a purely preventive visit, during which the veterinarian will give your kitty a thorough inspection of the chassis, body, and the entire interior. Regular blood tests, fecal tests, abdominal ultrasound, heart echo, vaccinations, deworming – these matters should not be neglected, regardless of the cat’s age, overall health, or breed and genetic predispositions.

Your second challenge for 2024 is a check-up visit with your kitty to the veterinarian. Because nothing affects cat happiness more than well-being. And since furballs are masters at hiding symptoms, don’t be afraid to look for potential problems on your own.

If you want to learn more about recommended examinations and preventive care for cats, go back to one of the articles from our cat ABC: https://blog.mykotty.pl/en/2020/04/20/prevention-of-cat-health/ 

CHALLENGE 3: Teach your cat a new trick

Why? Why not! Learning tricks, whether simple or more complicated, is an excellent way to improve the cat-guardian relationship and, at the same time, a wonderful alternative to more classic play models. Some cats derive great benefits from mental work and fare much better at solving puzzles and learning tricks than chasing a ball around the entire apartment. And it’s worth supporting them in such ambitions!

Your third challenge for 2024 is to test and master at least one simple trick with your cat. It could be giving a paw, a high five, lying down, or jumping on a scratching post. Such learning will not only bring joy to you and your cat but can also be useful in working on more demanding cat activities, such as nail clipping or loading into a carrier. We recently wrote about how to use a clicker and treats for teaching simple tricks on our blog. Check it out: https://blog.mykotty.pl/en/2022/09/26/how-it-works-clicker-training-your-cat/ 

CHALLENGE 4: Improve your cat’s diet

Healthy eating is a classic among New Year’s resolutions for Hoomans. Still, we can successfully include it on the list of fabCat challenges! Do you know, fabCat, how to calculate your cat’s correct daily food requirements? How large should the portions be? Does your fur’s diet still include dry food? Or perhaps there are too many filets and treats in it? Have you been planning to switch to BARF for a long time but don’t know where to start?

The new year is undoubtedly a good time to start with a fresh approach and take care of cat happiness with the help of healthy food. Don’t be afraid to consult the matter with a cat nutritionist – they will gladly advise you on what a healthy cat diet can look like and, most importantly, help transition even more resistant fur to it 🙂 Will you take on the challenge? To start, you can explore different methods of feeding cats by checking out an article we prepared earlier: https://blog.mykotty.pl/en/2021/05/04/different-ways-to-feed-a-cat-dry-food-wet-food-barf-and-whole-prey/ 

CHALLENGE 5: Enrich your cat’s environment

Scratching posts, shelves, toys, obstacle courses, a window perch – cats love them! The need to control their territory is incredibly important for cat happiness and a sense of security, and the more surface area there is to patrol, the better. Even if you don’t plan, fabCat, a thorough rearrangement of your apartment, think about how you can better match the space to the needs and individual preferences of your fur.

• Add scratching posts that not only serve the cat for sharpening claws and stretching but also for marking territory without destroying your furniture. Corrugated cardboard works great as an odor absorber, so LUI, VIGO, and TOBI will surely appeal to your furballs.
• Consider freeing up vertical space. Cats like to observe the world from above. Even if you can’t afford to install a shelf catwalk around the apartment, allowing your kitty to roam on the dresser, windowsill, or shelves is also a good solution.
• Create an obstacle course. When your cat is bored, and toys seem uninteresting, organize an obstacle course for your kitty and present new challenges. These can be cardboard tunnels that it chases through in pursuit of a fishing rod or snack trails that it must follow to reach the “main prize.” Sometimes just placing something new in the middle of the room makes the cat feel the need to explore the space. It’s a great way to stimulate cat senses. And if you don’t have much space for obstacle courses, after the play is done, everything can return to its place.

We wrote about enriching the cat’s environment in December – drop by the blog for more ideas: https://blog.mykotty.pl/en/2023/12/11/house-of-luxury-how-to-craft-the-ultimate-purrfect-space-at-home-and-beat-feline-boredom/ 

Do you, fabCats, make New Year’s resolution lists? Or, like us, do you see them as a good challenge and an opportunity to try something new? Add your suggestions to our list and show how you plan to make your cats happy in 2024. We look forward to the best challenges in the discussion under the article and on our Facebook profile → https://www.facebook.com/myKottypl/