About a year ago, I installed a small cabinet in the loft for Pixie’s timed feeder, as described in this post. A few months ago, Pixie decided she no longer wanted to use the microchip-enabled door for her cabinet, so I took her previous microchip-reading feeder out of storage and put it in her cabinet, and she was (mostly) happy with that setup.
(Side note: in a house with multiple cats who can’t share food, microchip-reading feeders are a major sanity saver. I use the feeders made by SurePet, which can read the embedded microchip that my cats are tagged with in case of being lost. I replaced the inner bowls with dishwasher-safe oval ceramic bowls from Petrageous (available at Chewy or Amazon) because Finn gets chin acne from plastic bowls and refuses to eat from metal bowls.)
This week, everything changed and as a result, so did the kitty feeding setup. Now that I leave my bedroom door open at night and Pixie sleeps on the bed with me, she didn’t like going “all the way” out to the loft cabinet for her 4am snack and was waking me up to go with her, or trying to break into Finn’s nearby feeder instead.
So I decided to clean up the underutilized vanity counter in the small hallway between my bedroom and bathroom, and make it the “official” kibble station. The counter is intended as a vanity space in a Jack-and-Jill style bathroom for the primary suite, but I’ve never used the counter for much besides a cat water bowl and Finn’s nighttime food. And of course, cute cat decor.
The first order of business was clearing away Finn’s timed feeder, which is no longer used, along with the bowls and riser. Once that was gone, I brought Pixie’s kibble feeder in from the loft and set it on the mat next to Finn’s feeder. The counter is just long enough that the water bowl is convenient but not too close to their food.
Pixie was thrilled with the new location for her food and happily ate her 4am snack without insisting on accompaniment from me.
The two of them rarely eat at the same time, because kibble is for light grazing between their regular canned food meals. But occasionally, there’s a jam-up when they both want to drink from the water bowl and neither wants to go to the other water bowls instead.
With Pixie’s feeder officially moved, I hauled the cabinet out of the loft and prepared to replace it with a small shelf and decorations for my yoga space.
Cue Pixie’s RAGE that I dared remove her empty cabinet, because she “was still using that, Mom!!”
Eventually she settled down and “helped” finish assembling the new shelf.
Once the shelf was in place, I added my yoga statues and the kitty toy basket, and Pixie decided it was acceptable.
And once again I have a calm, visually restful space at the top of my loft.
