Things your Devon Rex will need

For various reasons, I've decided to keep my Devon Rexes as indoor only cats. But how to make sure they're not missing out on any of the cool stuff in life? That's where my internet shopping fetish kicks in. Living in Italy where pets just aren't normally pandered to in the way that cats in the UK are, pet shops can be pretty basic and limited. So I discovered the quite frankly fabulous Zooplus who have a brilliant range of catsessories at surprisingly low prices. Now I could start spending and making my indoor kitties life as full as awesome as possible.

1. A Cat Tree
First things first... a cat tree. Somewhere the kitties could chill out, play, scratch, get up high (Devons like to do that) and generally call theirs. I wanted a huge one and I've got a massive living room so had plenty of space. All the best cat trees online seemed t be crazily expensive (like 500-1,000€ each) so I figured I'd design and build one. How hard can it be? Some timber, carpet, sisal rope and a few nails. I came up with an awesome design but having checked out the local DIY shop I realised this wasn't going to be a budget option after all as the materials were so expensive. Then I found this tree on Ebay. I originally wanted a nice neutral beige but realised they cost 600€ as opposed to 120€ for the slightly tackier version with paw prints on it. Total no-brainer and ordered the tacky one immediately. This is by far my best investment so far, my cats spend several hours a day on it, scratching the posts, chasing each other or snoozing. The hammocks are their favourite place when it's warm and when I haven't put the heating on they sleep in the little houses which retain their body heat brilliantly. If you have an indoor Devon Rex you HAVE to get one. Can you spot my kitties in the picture?

2. Litter Boxes
I'd only ever used bog standard (excuse the pun) supermarket brand litter for my moggie and only when we moved house and he had to be kept inside for a few days so really didn't know much about litter. I hadn't even realised there WAS much to know about litter. It seems I was wrong... but frankly if you want to find out more about the pros and cons of the different types there's loads of info online. I'm still not that interested as I'm training my cats to use the "big boy" toilet (more about that in this post), The breeder used silica gel crystals so so do I for now. They're not all that great though. A bag is meant to last a fortnight but even though I clean the trays every day they smell of pee after a week and need chucking. Also when cats kick them out of the box and you step on them with bare feel it HURTS!

3. Toilet Training Kit
I'll go into this in a seperate post but as I can't stand the smell of litter in my house I've bought a CittiKitty kit and am hoping training goes well...

4. Beds
My previous experience with Pushka taught me that spending money on cat beds is a total waste. They sleep wherever they damn well please which is generally not on the expensive fluffy bed in discreet pastel shades you've proudly brought home for them. Mine spend most of the daytime sleeping on my shoulders, lap or the cat tree and all night under the duvet in bed with me. I've got big windows in the kitchen though which catch the afternoon sunshine so I cut up an old cashmere cardie I hadn't worn in years and stuffed it with a slightly tatty pillow off my bed (I got a nice new one for myself). This goes on the kitchen table right by the window and they'll sleep in it on sunny days. As you can see in the photo it's nice and snuggly.

I also bought a couple of small "electric hot water bottles" at 5€ each from the local discount shop. Plug them in for 5 minutes and they stay warm for 8 hours. I wrap them in bits of old blanket and pop them in their beds as Devon Rexes feel the cold and the boys love them

5. Toys
Kittens are kittens. They don't care if a toy cost a tonne of money or if it's a scrunched up ball of paper. I did invest in the "Catit Design Senses Speed Circuit" from Zooplus. Only 12€ so worth a shot. It's pretty cool and great value but my boys only play with it when I do and lose interest pretty quickly. Ditto for the toy mice, balls and fluffy little animal things. They much prefer scrunched up balls of paper or tinfoil and anything I tie to the end of a bit of string and drag round the floor for them. One must have for Devon Rexes is a laser toy. I bought the Trixie Laser Pointer again from Zooplus It sends out a small red dot of light that my cats go nuts over. Dim the lights for the best effect and they'll chase it for hours but make sure you finish playtime with a toy they can actually get sink their claws into or you end up with frustrated kitties. By far their favourite toy so far is a ball of baking parchment wrapped in tin foil and they play with that for hours

6. Food
Although I have a sneaky suspicion that when you buy premium food you're actually paying for the marketing rather than the ingredients I'm not willing to test that theory and my kitties get only the best brands of kibble and tins. The kibble is always available to them, the wet food gets doled out three times a day. Mine are 5 months old and they get half a small tin of kitten food at each meal time.

A word of warning. My beautiful and beloved moggie Pushka only ate dry kibble which he was happy with and which suited me. Then, a few months ago he got a blocked urethra and, although my fabulous local vets operated he just didn't make it through and we lost him a few hours after the op. I'd never even heard of this condition and researched it online. It turns out that a dry food only diet for male cats can put them at serious risk of developing a potentially fatal blockage. This is NOT something the vets or anyone else for that matter tell you and having spoken to a few other cat owners it seems most of us only find out the hard way when our much loved baby becomes critically ill and, in the worst cases dies. I couldn't believe that not only had I lost my boy but that, however unintentionally, I might have contributed to his death. I will NEVER make the same mistake again and my Devon Rexes will carry on having wet food as well as kibble throughout their lives.

7. Walkies
I want my boys to get the most out of life that they can so intend to train them to walk on the lead. I've bought two X-Cat cat harnesses (guess where I bought them from). I'll talk more about leash training my kitties in a later post

8. Cat Grass

From what I can gather the beneficial effects of eating grass seem to be anecdotal at best but in the spirit of giving my kitties the best life I can, I bought a pack of Friskies cat grass seeds and planted them up. Bowie isn't even remotely interested but Blue loves it and nibbles at it a couple of times a day. I was slightly worried the soil might end up used as an alternative litter tray but that hasn't happened and I'll keep growing it as long as Blue keeps eating it

9. A Scratching Post
The cat tree has several posts wrapped with sisal for just this purpose. Devons, like all cats love to scratch. About the only piece of kit I had for Pushka my moggie was a full height scratching post and I kept hold of it after he passed on. It took a few days to teach my Devons what to do with it but they love it now, although I do need to remind Bowie several times a day that Mumma's leg is not the appropriate place to scratch on

10. A Warm Jumper
I'm one of those people who hate seeing animals in sweaters. The sight of a Yorkie trotting down the street in a pink jumper covered in hearts makes me cringe. However, at 5 months my boys still don't have their adult fur and it's pretty cold out so when we do head outside they need help keeping warm. When I picked them up from the breeder she'd made a couple of brilliant coats out of the sleeves of a kids fleece. The head goes through the cuff and there's a couple of small holes cut out for the legs. It's free, it works and I think it gives us a load more street cred than some cutesie shop-bought number


11. Another Devon Rex
 Okay, not everyone can afford or wants two Rexes but by far the best thing I've done so far is buy two brothers. A Devon's favourite toy is... another Devon. They spend hours playing together, sleeping curled up together, grooming each other and generally enjoying each others company. And double the Devons is certainly not double the work. I'm no expert as I've never had a single Rex but when for whatever reason (work or social life) can't dedicate them my full attention, they're so good at entertaining each other.

12. Time, Love and Affection
I've put this last on the list but it's the most important of all. I'm lucky in that I work from home so I'm with my boys pretty much 24/7. I wouldn't even have considered getting a Devon Rex if I'd had a regular job. These guys are not very independent and can be extremely demanding (in the cutest, most adorable way possible). They need huge amounts of interaction in the form of cuddles, play time (although having two does help out with that side of things) and just general loving. I know some people do have Devons and leave them alone all day but personally (and I'm absolutely not judging those owners in any way) I'd recommend getting a less people-oriented cat if you're going to do that. My old moggie would come and say hello a few times during the day, shout when he wanted something and sleep on my bed. Other than that he pretty much kept himself to himself. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Devon Rexes are not cats as most people understand them and they need just as much human contact as a puppy would. When you're at home with them they will constantly be wanting cuddles or getting themselves into sticky situations that "Mum" has to go and help them out of. They are time-consuming, demanding and ever-present. If you can't handle and embrace that fact, don't get one. If you're prepared for it and able to spend hours on end holding them, playing with them, training them or even just watching them sleep (I do that and I'm not ashamed to admit it) then you're about to be the proud owner of the best cat you've ever met