Friday, March 30, 2012

A New Fun Cat Shelf /Perch Model called Baby TomCat

The Baby TomCat was born from the needs of a patient customer of ours Judith S. of L.A. Calinfornia. She had told us the TomCat cat shelf was a little on the big size and she required some about 12" smaller. So we took a look at our TomCat and asked ourselves how could we make this unit smaller and maybe a little more cute.

BabyTom01-cat-house

The regular cat shelf / perch was 36" long and the cut out was large for all cats. So after some playing about, we found a size which we feel is very functional and darn cute too! What is so cool about this unit, is that with rubber feet it is not only a wall mounting unit for cat to play on, it is also the perfect little free standing floor unit cat perch, cat shelf and cat house in one.

 

BabyTom01-cat-perch

BabyTom01-cat-shelf

Measuring 24" long and 12" tall and 12" deep, I can't wait to make more of these for our cats to play on and get your some awesome new footage for youtube.

Thank you Judith!

We entered "Get on the Shelf" contest with Walmart, Help us win!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rQuztLAUAw4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Question about a cat that jumps up on counter top while cook

Help controlling a cat in the kitchen

Question:
Does anyone have any cat training tips? My big boy Franky has just recently started jumping on the stove while I'm trying to cook. We have no doors in the kitchen to shut him out with, and obviously, I'm terrified he's going to burn himself, or me, as I just barely avoided a skillet full of hamburger and grease he sent flying tonight. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you!
1 possible Answer:
We firmly say no, click our fingers at the same time, so they associate the click with something they should not do. A water pistol may be good to have at the ready. 2 or 3 times and they will not do it again. If you use a water pistol or squirt bottle, be sure to do it as an immediate response to their action. Do not squirt them 10, 20 seconds later as it has to be clear that they did this, and they get wet as a result. the faster the action and your response is, the better they will associate.Please also make sure everyone is on the same page with this. If you are being good with the training, but other in your family are not, then your efforts could be quickly undone.
Good luck!
Email your other cat related questions here: topcat@catwalkforkitty.com

Cat Perch Creation Moving forward

The cat perch and cat shelf business

is one that has been giving us one heck of a ride this past month. Since we launched the new store at the beginning of March, our ranking with google has slipped as all of the shop items are now on another domain. Everything looks the same more or less on our current site, but the shop pages are actually pointing to a shop hosting service for now. It might be the way to go long term as the shop is just so darn cool, although it has some troublesome limits.

We are trying to get our cat shelf products into amazon and already have them linked to google products to help with search results. We have a steady flow of videos being uploaded to youtube and we have even tried some email blasts to let people know about our cool products. It's easy to pay a dollar for a click for someone to come visit our site, but it's not worth the money right now, so for now we have to settle for good ole hard work.

Because the business is still so young, to balance the creation of the cat perches with the updating of the website, with the sitting down and talking about marketing with Dee, to having the ability to have any kind of personal life is something of a nightmare at this stage. But I believe in Catwalk for kitty and know I have to keep on keeping on.

Pricing of the cat perches is our next big hurdle. We have found that although we can make the cat perches and cat shelves at a lower price, we are unable to sustain the initial growth of the business if we continue to keep the pricing as it currently stands. After looking around at quality products and especially the handcrafted market, we feel we have a perfect price point, then coupled with free shipping, we should make most happy with the new changes coming into affect April 7th.

After some months creating cat perches and cat shelving and seeing exactly all that is involved with the "extra costs" we have a new price which will be higher than our current prices that reflect more sensibly our time, effort, materials and other overheads. We plan to reward heavily next year our best customers as they certainly seem to keep coming back for more.

New products

We are literally chomping at the bit to get a start on some of our news designs we have drawn up. Some of our new cat house designs are plays on very popular designs not yet available in the USA, though our cat perches and shelving, trees and cat furniture in general will be 100% made in the USA with FREE shipping.

We have a modular cat box wall unit available soon in many configurations. We are currently working on a quote for this style for a cat shelter in C.A. I am actually buying the wood tomorrow to create our first full system which the photos will be here shortly.

We have a whole line of "Floating Wall Shelves" in creation, whereby the usually cat stepping shelf units we make and sell will also be made in the floating shelf style.

And a cool new product I can't wait to make is the "Cat Exercise Wheel" where your cat can safely jump up into the wheel and be able to run after a toy or light etc. to help them get their exercise each day. As a designer and inventor I have version of this that will be available this year which will be an exercise wheel for my heaviest cat Felicity who is 24lbs. When she sits she looks like a hovercraft as her skin and fur overlaps her body all around her permitter. I am thinking that we will have a version that will have her run for a timed period each time she wants to eat her food. Nothing like torture, but something just to help her spend some more calories each day. (maybe I should make one for myself as I too have been seeing my own shape becoming more and more unfit!) :)

ALSO, if you own a website and would love to exchange links with a small line of text or so, please contact me so we ca help each other.

Customer Shelving Units Prior to Shipping


Here are some of the latest works of art to leave our workshop, we hope you like. We would love to hear some feedback should you have any. Thank you so much.

A Big thank you to John Carroll for being a great customer, here is his shelving units we created just for his cats.

2 cat perches / cat shelves for John C.

Another Cat Perch 48" wide with Cat windows and Light cream carpet for a customer.

cat perch with cat shaped windows and light cream carpet.

A beautiful Bird window cat perch 48" long, 12" tall and 12" deep.

cat perch and cat shelf with bird cut out windows

cat wall shelf with bird window cut out.
3 cat perches together on steps.

3 cat perches on stairs