A cat makes a wonderful pet for both adults and children.
They are quiet, easy to house and fun to have around the house.
They are cheap to feed and will sit on your knee in the evenings.
Everyone loves a cat in the house.
However if you've decided that you're going to get a pet moggy there's a few things you need to think about.
One of them is how to keep him happy and entertained.
And a great way to make sure you have a happy feline is to provide him or her with a cat tree and scratching post.
A cat tree is something for your him to play on.
Cats are natural climbers.
If you've ever been outside and seen him go up a tree you'll be amazed at how fast they can climb.
Felines just love to climb trees, and of course if he is an outdoors cat and there's trees around then he can do so to his heart's content.
But if your moggy is an indoors cat then there are certainly no trees to him to climb on, or at least there aren't unless you buy a cat tree.
A cat tree is simply a way of providing him with an artificial tree to climb on.
It is manufactured in such a way that there are all sorts of nooks and crannies to him to investigate and lots of ways for him to climb.
A cat tree is a strange looking device but cats love them, and they fulfill the natural urge of him to climb.
You can buy commercial cat trees or you can make one of your own.
If you're handy with a hammer and nails it's perfectly possible to build a cat tree yourself.
And if you enjoy building things you can have some fun trying to make him tree as innovative as possible.
One of the other things you need to think about if you've decided to get a pet cat is to give him or her something to scratch.
Cats love to scratch and need to do so to keep their claws sharp.
You may not want him to have sharp claws but he will do so anyway, and if you don't provide him something to scratch then he'll scratch the legs of your favourite piece of furniture instead.
And probably lots of other pieces of furniture as well.
Scratching posts are designed to provide the cat with somewhere to scratch that can happily be damaged from the scratching without upsetting the owner of the cat.
There are both horizontal and vertical cat scratching posts, however both provide the same function, to give the cat somewhere to scratch to save the legs of your furniture.
Both items are designed to pamper him by catering for his instincts to climb and scratch.
The cat with a good scratching post and climbing tree will be a happy cat.
Not all cats will immediately take to their cat tree however.
In some cases you have to lead the cat to the tree and provide them with some encouragement to use it before they get the hint.
To do so try playing with your new cat on the tree, perhaps with a few toys.
You can suspend cat toys from branches of the tree to give him something to bat at.
You can also leave a little catnip on the tree to attract him there.
Or you could leave an old item of your clothing there for the same reason.
There is no doubt a cat makes a wonderful pet, provided you take some simple steps to make sure that he is a happy well adjusted cat with lots of things to do.
Providing him with a cat scratching post and a cat tree will go a long way towards making sure you have a happy cat.