What to avoid when you have a cat (or more than one) when it comes to furnishings?
Luca Cantini: "Avoid creating aseptic environments and devoid of stimuli. Sometimes I find myself visiting homes that may even be very beautiful but which do not offer the opportunity for the cats present in the family to find even a suitable place to go to rest.
Often there is only a kennel placed on the floor next to the sofa: guess where our cat will sleep all day?
On the other hand, it will be advisable to avoid filling shelves, shelves and bookcases with everything. All this will prevent our cats from using the spaces above and this, as I said before, can represent a problem. I also remember that our cats are skilled predators so be careful of hanging plants, curtains that move at the first breath of wind and ornaments of all kinds, with a cat present in house will not have a long life.
How to prepare a house for the arrival of a cat?
Luca Cantini: "At the beginning it will be enough to make everything a cat needs available to it. We don't know it well yet so we can't do anything other than enrich the environment as we will for any other Only later, when my cat and I get to know each other better, will I be able to offer him everything he needs.
So, to give an example, if it is a shy cat I will make sure that it can go and hide in its favorite hideout every time guests arrive or if on the contrary it is a very sociable cat, I will ensure that he can orbit around us for the entire duration of the visit."
Can the layout of the house influence the cat's health?
Luca Cantini: "Certainly yes, it is one of the reasons why I wrote this guide: to avoid creating living spaces that facilitate the onset of behavioral pathologies. In fact, there are behavioral pathologies that arise in cats that live in environments devoid of stimulation or where they are denied access to certain rooms at certain times of the day.
Not to mention the pathologies linked to overcrowding problems. Through the design of suitable environments it is possible to achieve prevention, this is a topic that is very close to my heart."
What are the essential elements, in terms of furniture, that a cat needs at home?
Luca Cantini: "Our cats need to move and jump, therefore little space and many paths above that they can use. You can use modules already on the market or give space to the imagination, but the important thing is to get these poor cats moving. Staying on the subject of movement, it will also be important to give them the opportunity to play.
Let's create spaces where our cats can play freely, preferably in our company. Another fundamental need is relational. Our cats love us and we love them but if we don't give them the opportunity to follow us in all the daily activities we carry out inside our homes they won't find anything better to do than go and rest in some remote place of the house".
How can architects and interior designers make use of his role as a veterinary behaviourist?
Luca Cantini: "If we want to design environments suited to the needs of the whole family, including animals, it will be important to collaborate by each providing their own skills. The veterinary doctor expert in animal behavior will have a very clear vision of how everyone the cats in the family conceive the spaces made available to them while the architect will have the skills to furnish them in the best way > in order to make them suitable for the needs of the entire family group".
