Casey Recommends: Cardboard Cat Houses

And Cat Taco Trucks and Cat Cacti, and what have you

As a certified Childless Cat Lady (though I prefer the term Child-Free Cat Family here), I feel it is within my zone of genius to make this recommendation today.

The ratio of Fun Dog Stuff to Fun Cat Stuff is decidedly skewed in the dog direction — and yes, I understand why this is. Dogs are more social creatures and have many more opportunities to be out in the world, and I love all dogs, but my focus is not on spoiling them.

The loves of my life, my reasons for living, my two demons, my boys Lenny and Bixby — they need to be spoiled too!

It all started with a taco truck we bought in August 2020.

Bixby, the floofy panther of our feline duo, is a feisty little scratcher who we nicknamed “Destroyer of Worlds” when he first entered our home. Both he and Lenny love a regular cardboard box, as cats do, but could care less about the tower-style sisal cat scratchers.

So when I saw the taco truck at Target, I snapped it up as an entertaining and potentially helpful experiment.

Which led to Reason Number One for populating your home with these things:

Cardboard cat houses are hilarious.

The cuteness and photo opportunities are endless! Even if you don’t have a dedicated Instagram account for your cat! Just look at these bubs:

They’re fairly affordable.

Bixby loves a very specific kind of cat house. It must be two stories, but he wants the second story to have an enclosed cave area — not left open to exposure from the pawparazzi.

Lenny, on the other hand, has tried them all but apparently has ceded the territory to Bixby as his exclusive domain, so he sticks to his usual retinue of regular boxes.

So if you try one style of house and it doesn’t appeal to your cat, try a different layout. They might just need to shop around to find the kind they like.

They’re recyclable.

Cardboard, unlike plastic, is much less problematic and has a higher ROI when recycled. So when Bixby has completely destroyed one of his houses beyond functional use, off to the town recycling bin it goes without guilt.

Which leaves room in the house for another fresh house (or truck) from our stash — I’ve got a sushi food truck on deck for him next!

Where do I get these wonderful toys?

Target used to make all sorts of cardboard houses (like the aforementioned taco truck), but the company seems to have curtailed the variety within that product line significantly within the past year. A quick search of “cardboard cat houses” on the site revealed a few options for Halloween and Christmas, however.

Luckily, Chewy also sells a wide range of house styles under $35, and I picked up this sultry lounging couch at Petco last week too.

The key here is the price point: Don’t spend too much (like $80! WHAT. WHY.) on one of these things. Like I said, you gotta see if your cat is into them first, and they’re eventually ending up in recycling anyway. So keep the investment low.

And if you have photos of your cats in their own luxury cardboard penthouses, by all means, show them to me. This is why we’re here.