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Most scratching posts are an eyesore you tolerate. This one reads as a houseplant from across the room, which is the only reason some households keep one in the living room at all. Behind the look it does the job properly: three arms wrapped in green sisal, tall enough for a full upward stretch, on a base weighted so it does not tip when a cat lands against it. Two cats can use different arms at once, which matters more than it sounds in a house where one cat guards things. Put it where your cat already scratches rather than where it suits the room, because placement decides whether a post gets used.

A cat that has nowhere to climb will find somewhere, usually your curtains. Nearly ten feet of natural sisal hung from a ceiling hook gives that instinct a proper outlet in a room with no floor space for a tree. Sisal is the point rather than a detail: it is the texture cats choose to pull against, and it survives claws in a way that rope wrapped in anything softer does not. Hang it where your cat already tries to get height, give it room to swing without hitting a wall, and check the hook is into a joist rather than plasterboard before the first jump.

A small flat has no floor to spare and plenty of empty wall. Four solid wood steps and a sisal wrapped post turn that wall into the vertical territory an indoor cat needs, without losing a square foot of the room. Height is not decoration for a cat: being able to look down on a space is how they decide it is safe, which is why a cat in a low flat with nowhere to climb tends to be the one that seems permanently on edge. Mount the steps in a rising zigzag with a comfortable jump between them, start low enough for an older cat, and finish at a perch wide enough to lie on.

Most cats drink far less than they should, and a still bowl is usually why. In the wild moving water is the safe water, so a cat will walk past a full dish and then drink from a dripping tap. A fountain turns that instinct in your favour, and it matters more than it sounds: a cat that drinks properly is a cat with fewer urinary and kidney problems down the line. The pump here is quiet enough to sit in a kitchen without anyone noticing it, the carbon filter takes out the dust and hair that put cats off, and 1.2 litres means topping up every few days instead of every morning.

If you have more than one cat, the box is the thing that decides how your home smells. This one sifts after every visit and drops the waste into a sealed nine litre bin, so a single cat household goes about two weeks between emptyings and a two cat house goes about one. The drum holds 65 litres, which is wide enough for a large cat to turn around and dig properly rather than perching at the entrance. Four weight sensors and infrared detection work together, so if the sensor lens gets dusty the weight plate still catches your cat and stops the cycle. It takes clumping bentonite, tofu, mixed and mineral litter.

A tall tree solves two problems at once: a big cat gets a platform that actually holds them, and a small flat gets the vertical space it has no floor for. Pick 54, 65 or 72 inches depending on your ceiling. Every post is wrapped in full height sisal, so a cat can stretch out to full length against it, which is the whole reason a post gets used instead of your sofa arm. The enclosed condo gives a nervous cat somewhere to retreat, and the upper perches are wide enough for a cat to sleep on rather than balance on. In a multi cat house the levels matter more than the footprint.