Cool for cats: House rules when living with four-legged friends

From litter trays to scratching posts, here's our top advice for a happy home for all

Special correspondent and rescue Bunny Penelope Richards and her post-Christmas bird deterrent on a breakaway collar. Pictures: Kya deLongchamps

I have a savage daughter. She’s only 14cm at the shoulder, but a brutal murderess who holds my heart in her toe-beans. The protocol of living with a typical dog is understood by both parties (except Jack Russells, of course). Dogs adapt, fawn, and follow commands. In short, they almost fully submit. You cannot extract the embers of wildness from a cat. Even the most coddled kitten, prone on its €100 calming cushion and stuffed to the velvet cheeks with science kibble, is a tiny tiger coiled and ready to strike. Ogden Nash said it best: “The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat.”

Here are some survival tips for a passion with the inside purr from my special expert, Bunny Penelope Richards. Having grown up in a household of rescues, she is the 30th cat to own this barely adequate cat servant, body and soul.