More Awesome Than You!

Cats are supposed to be able to sleep in/on the Kitty Condo object that doubles as a scratching post, right?

I've never seen a cat sleep in one of these on its own.  They'll scratch/survey/rest on it all day, but they refuse to sleep.

I don't think it's a placement issue, because when I use the controlpets cheat I can make them sleep in it.  Sometimes they'll climb up to the top to sleep, and sometimes they'll go inside. 

I haven't gotten around to installing the 2nd Pets patch.  The Kitty Condo was never listed as an issue.

The only non-Awesome hacks I have are a sellable juice tray hack from MTS2 and Squinge's communal shower upgrade.

 :-\

Mine have never slept in/on it either. They prefer the floor or furniture. I don't think it advertises enough energy replenishment. Not sure though.

Yea, now that I think about it, mine have never autonomously slept on it either -- only when I directed them to.  Even if it's the only 'pet bed' in the house, they prefer the floor or furniture, it seems.

I attribute it to just another incident of Maxis/EA's false advertising.   No cat in my game has ever slept in it or on it under any circumstances.

Too bad it doesn't work properly since the pet beds were designed for big dogs on steroids and take up way too much space.

Get Paladin's one tile pet beds.  They work just like the original but are only one tile.

I have one house that has three cats.  One of the cats autonomously sleeps inside the "cubby" part of the condo and I assumed it's because there were only two other cat beds.  But now I wonder why, if no one else is having such luck.  Hmm.

Out of over 20 cats I've had in-game, I've had two use the condo to sleep, and then only occasionally. With one, it was a two-cat home with no other beds. Generally both cats would sleep on the floor instead. In one nine-cat household with only three beds, none ever slept in the two cat condos.

Yeah. That would suggest that something's borked.

Before Seasons came out and screwed up the lots from the bin from Pets, I used to play Pettina's Pet Retreat all the time, the cats will sleep in the condo there.  Kim, one of the cats that come with Pets used to sleep in it all the time on her own.

I installed pets and seasons one right after another and played patch free, cc and hack free for about three weeks, just because. I bought the kitty condos as my only pet beds and none of the eight or ten cats in my game ever used them, always preferring to sleep on the floor. :P

Looked at those today, Cheriem.  Very cute and lots of choices.  Now just deciding whether I want to add to my DL folder, which I am intent on keeping under one gig.  Sigh.

Ah, g'on, you know you want to download them.  Come to the dark side -- we have cookies!
:)

That or just find some useless crap to delete. :P

Someone needs to fix it so the cats actually use it!!  Or at least point me in the right direction to up the advertising on it.  I know my RL cats will sleep *anywhere* but my simmies' kittehs should use the condo!

Cookies?  Did I hear cookies?  Maybe chocolate chippies???  Yum, yum (as my Furbies used to say)

Something to munch on while I cull my DLs to make room for a few beds.   :D

Maybe it's just a case of too much realism?

My cat has the entire sofa to herself, and she chooses to sleep on the floor, on top of a pile that includes an empty plastic grocery bag, my notebook, about six pairs of my husband's dirty socks (ech!) and a can of compressed air.

Who really knows why cats sleep where they do?  :D

Exactly. Of my 2 cats, one prefers to sleep on my pillows on the bed while I'm not using them. When I am, he finds the rug in front of the computer perfect - even though there's a house full of fluffy comfortable chairs/sofas and a gigantic fluffy dog-pillow (which the dogs don't use either mind you).
The other prefers either the top of my dresser or the tiny crack of space under the stereo/entertainment cabinet.

My cat's favorite napping place is on top of the keyboard. Unfortunately he must take his naps in 10 second bursts.

He also claimed one of my pillows, and at night he usually sleeps wrapped around my head. Since the weather is turning hot, this is not very comfortable. The train-like purring does not help, either. I've tried to kick him out of the room, but then he sits by the door and yowls like someone is butchering him, so my sleep is not improved, and the other people in the house object as well. I bought him a nice little cat bed, and he promptly peed all over it. However, the dog is strangely attached to it now, probably because the smell didn't quite wash off, so it wasn't a total waste.

I love cats.

I've just had all the bedroom floors and the corridor stripped back to wood and polished. My ancient grey cat decided she would lay her achy old bones on the polished wood in the corridor at night. Lately it's become even worse, she sleeps on the lino in front of the shower. I have a carpeted lounge with good cat hidey spots, also a proper couch and armchairs etc. She has full access to this room at night because her cat door opens off it, yet chooses to sleep on cold wood in a corridor. So weird.

Now, it's getting colder at night and I don't allow her in my room, because of fur and scratching of rugs etc, so I decided to find her a bed. Maybe she just wants to sleep up the end of the house where I am, gawd only knows why.

So I went to the Warehouse, our equivalent of Wal-Mart from what I read, and had a poke around. I had no intention of buying a $60 or $70 cat bed in a posh shop, that just seems ludicrous to me. So I found a wireframe, oblong, woven basket about 12" tall and large enough for a medium cat to stretch out. (Nice shaded pink to purple stripes woven in too). Half price at $6.97 he he. Got home, put a small old wool blanket to line it, old pillow in the bottom, towel on top, voila, a cat bed. I was tickled pink with myself.

The cat however, was deeply suspicious. Now she and I are not what you might call close. She's a bitch and so am I, we are the last survivors of a much larger pack, with both her son and mine gone (her's is dead, mine isn't), no more dogs and the sad loss of my ferret
it's just me and her, two grumpy old ladies. We don't cuddle, we just talk.

So anyway, I pick her up and stroking her gently, put her in this new bed. She tenses. WTF? Is this anything to do with vets? A piercing look of acute suspicion met my eyes. I petted and gentled her into a lying position, all the time feeling her body ready to leap, as soon as I let go, sure enough she was out of there. :) I tried again after she'd had her wash after tea, no dice.

Then I got cunning. I hid little bits of pate in the corners of the bed and put it in front of the shower. Sure enough, when I got up this morning, she was sleeping in her new bed.

I think so too. I'm actually shocked that the cats play with the cat toys or sleep in the pet beds at all. And I've had my sim cats sleep on the kitty condo, just not often.
Wow, your cat lets you have the pillow to yourself? No wrapping around your head action?

Hey, you know what hack we need for realism? Something that makes the cats seek the most expensive object that is not a pet bed, and that is what they sleep on. Especially rugs. I'll never forget Luv Bug and my mom's antique rug hunting spurt. Every new rug was in the house about 3 min before a fat cat was right in the middle, fast asleep.

I used to make quilts and my cats always wanted to sleep ON the sewing machine, right on the folded project currently being worked on.  We also have one cat that always likes whatever seems like a 'new' place.  I left an empty laundry basket sitting out the other day (rare occurrence for us) and she hopped right in and slept there all afternoon. Cold empty plastic. Yuck.

But no, my Sims cats never ever sleep anywhere near the condo.  I have one set that actually sleep outdoors in the grass mostly, outside the pet house I got for them to breed in.  They were my first cats in the game, and I thought they didn't sleep in the condo because it's in the room with the TV, but none of the other cats I've had in game since will either.

Laura

I have to agree with the "cats like to sleep in new stuff" idea.  I've found that they love cardboard boxes, even if it's a size 11 shoebox and the cat is about size 18. 

Recently my wife went to pick up a paper gift bag (like the old paper grocery bags, but with handles) and discovered it was heavy:  there was a cat in it.

I've never had a kitty condo in real life, but we had something similar once.  It was a tall pipe with a flat top and holes in the side, covered with carpet.  Cats loved sleeping on top of it.  Sometimes they'd even get inside to play.

As for real life cat toys, I've had cats play with them, but not a lot.  One favorite was a "ball race"... a hollow donut with a ball inside and holes on the outside.  Cats like to play with non-cat-toys a lot tho.  Drop the wire twist tie from a loaf of bread on the floor some time and see what happens.

Oh yes, almost forgot.  I had one cat who loved to dig through my son's toy box when he was bored.  I don't recall him ever playing with the toys he found there though. :)  He loved plastic grocery bags as well.  He'd stick his head through one of the handle loops and wear the bag around like a cape.  Supercat.  He did this a lot.  He got upset if you tried to take it off.

As for the kitty condo, I was surprised when my Sim cat wouldn't sleep in it.  In the one house where they do, is there anything different about the placement of the condo?  I think the only configuration I haven't tried yet is having one out in the middle of the floor, not against a wall.

Hook

My three year old cat likes to sleep practically anywhere.. piles of clothes, in clothes baskets, dining room table, all the beds, any floor, any chair/couch.. right now he is behind me sleeping on the window air conditioner unit outside.  Oh, he loves sleeping in boxes too!

My eleven year old cat only sleeps outside (he has a place in the backyard he always sits in), the air conditioner unit, the floor, and chairs.  He likes to claim chairs as soon as we get up!

Our cats like to sleep in shoe boxes too.  :D We've given up on buying real cat toys for them. They're not interested. They'd much rather play with my daughters' "My Little Ponies" (they pick them up by the tail, throw them around, groom them and run through the house with the tail in their mouths), a ball of crumpled up tin foil or an ice cube. They love twist ties & rubber bands but we take them away because our oldest cat tries to eat them. Those plastic spider rings the kids get around Halloween? My cats LOVE those. They'll play with them almost endlessly.

It's been getting warmer around here so lately our cats have taken to sleeping in the bathroom sinks again. Rather humorous to see.

Once in a great while my sim cats will sleep in the condo. It doesn't seem to matter whether it's against a wall or not. I've seen them sleep in the little cubby hole and even once on the platforms. They seem to prefer the beds though. Perhaps they advertise higher energy & comfort levels?

Sadly, they didn't implement the ability for cats to procedurally get on things. Snow can get on things, but cats can't. It's a major shortcoming of Maxis cats.

IRL, my cats love their kitty condo. In fact, they're up there now, snuggled together on the top tier (awwwwww). In my game, however, the cats only sleep in the condo if I direct them to. I really wish the sim-cats could snuggle together like real-life kitties do. Even when it's stifling here (which is any time other than what passes for winter in the desert), my cats will curl up together in a chair or on top of their kitty condo. Oh well. Maybe in TS3.

Jeezie creezie, twist ties.  I think 99% of the catfights in my house are over twist ties.  I have no idea where most of them come from, either.  It's like there's some portal to the Land of Twist Ties in my spare bedroom and only one of them can visit it at a time.  My girl cat's favourite"toy" is an unwrapped maxi pad.  She carries it around and "cares" for it until the wrapping is in shreds and then she puts it to pasture near her hidey hole (Pop. 5 Ponytail Holders, 2 paperclips and a dead beetle).  I don't give them to her, she's taught herself to open the bathroom cabinets.

I've had one in game cat ever sleep on the kitty condo without being instructed.  Sucks, too, because it would be nice to have an all-purpose scratching-post/bed. 

Yeah, no kitten piles in Pets. Kitten piles are awesome, too.

Cats are apparently evolved in a desert climate, so they really like warmth, even in temperatures humans find to be awful.

My cat always slept next to my side or in the middle of the living room floor, between the TV and the grumpy grandfather who hated her. Close enough to see her but couldn't do anything about it. She would also cat nap in the dirt under a tree in the back yard then roll around in it when she woke up, and yet she was the cleanest cat when she came inside, her hair was just strange, repelled rain water and dirt.

My sims cats always steal the dogs bed, leaving one of the dogs to stare at it while it sleeps happily away. If puppies could sleep in the bottom of the condo i wouldn't care so much, it would even things out a bit. Usually I scroll over when I have dogs breed to find out why they ignored me, theres a cat in the dog house. I swear if theres a dog house on the lot every time I look in it there will be a cat

Yes, they sprawl out on the windowsill during the hottest part of the day, purring contentedly. The glass is like an ant-killing prism, yet they can't seem to get enough of it. Meanwhile, I can't even stand being NEAR the window during the day, even with the AC cranked up. Oh, and they just luuuuurve to sleep on me (because humans make the comfiest cat beds), even when it's 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 Celsius) in the house - just what you need when you're already sweating buckets. ::)

I think Maxis cats are modeled after real life cats because the only time my cat uses the cat condo (the heavy, barely fits into my car and takes up way to much space in my dining room cat condo) is after I've talked to my intended about throwing it away because he never uses it. It spent a few months at the new apartment so I told him that it was going into the dumpster and the next day the cat was giving me evil looks from the top.

The cat's prefered spot is on top of my intended's old shoes. The sole is falling off so I was going to throw them out but I dont want the cat to claim anything else.

He also likes the floor. He'll take the throw pillows off the couch but won't bother to actually sleep on them. Maybe he's insulting my decorating choices.

I made my family - me, loony malty-poo, and princess kitty.

First thing "moron" (dog, so appropriate) did was dig a hole in the yard, cat immediately climbed the kitty condo, scratched it & went to sleep.
So realistic it was frighting! I made her a genius, lazy, kitty.

Cats like computers for the same reason.

Ah, yes, another good reason to own an iMac. The cats don't fit on top of it. :D

And this is supposed to stop the cat, how?

Cats are smart (unlike dogs).

My cat is an expert in grabbing the mouse cord and pulling my mouse away. She long ago learned this is the best way to get my attention and gain a lap or get fed.

We all swear the wife's cat - Virgil - is very.. special.
He's the one the others always manage to talk into trouble. He'll do something blatantly against the rules of the house, two feet from us, and when we yell about it, he gets this expression.. then looks to where the other three cats are huddled together, watching him. They see us noticing them and bolt to various points like they've suddenly sprung similar polarity. Now we yell at the other three when he does something wrong and they're huddled like that.
One day, hubby pulled out a closed and buckled (but not plastic sealed) box of 40 CDs for us to clear some space off drives. This box sat next to hubby's desk, on the floor. Weeks went by and we forgot about the box being there, since the computer room is always a chaotic scramble. Until...
*plip* . . . *plip* . . . *plip* . . . *plip*

I look over, and Virgil has opened the box and is very VERY carefully reaching inside, snagging a claw on the inside of each disc's hole, lifting it OUT of the box, then setting it ever so neatly in a pile... beside.. the box. And this wasn't a haphazard thing, either. The stack was so neat you'd think someone grabbed a handful of blanks and set them there in a column. By the time we realized what he'd been doing, he'd managed to get almost all the discs out of the box, each one flipped upside down from how it had been inside.
Hubby.. once he got over the shock.. scooped up the discs and dropped them back in the box, telling Virgil not to touch them. Virgil scrunched the two mounds with whiskers (his are terribly pronounced) so they were all pointing forward like little white spears and let out this exhasperated little noise, took a couple swipes at cleaning his face, and dipped right back into the box, started pulling them out again.

*dies laughing*  Virgil sounds like he is a very special cat  :D

I want Virgil. He reminds me of my old Bernard. Bernard used to corrupt my grandpa's well behaved dog. It was great.

We need to clone Virgil! 
(and I want him in my game...unfortunately even the "smart" side of the scale on a maxian cat isn't that smart)

XD
He's an idiot savant. He seems totally retarded.. and I mean that in the medical definition of the word.. but then he pulls these stunts! I told hubby I'm starting to think he isn't as stupid as he pretends to be, that he just ACTS like a dingus so we won't force him to behave or learn tricks.

The secret to contentment is to foster low expectations. That way, if you ever actually do something, everyone is impressed.

I wonder if it has to do with where the condos are placed? I had one cat try to sleep on it but kept being woken up by the radio which I always leave on. And the condos end up being in the living rooms since I have the most space there. I wonder if a hack exists to keep the pets from waking up around a TV/radio... my real cats (of which there are six between us) have no problem sleeping with the TV blaring.

They're contrary little snots, aren't they? :P Oh, they'll play with the cat toys, sure, but their favorites are Piece of String/Shoelace, Heart-Shaped Pencil Topper, and Ball of Foil.

Your evil cat looks just like our idiot. XD


Ah.. the ultimate Tao of Cat. That and pee without getting any on your shoes.

Ferrets are the same way. I used to buy toys for mine, and stopped when I realized that they are far more excited by empty soda fridge pack boxes, empty plastic grocery bags, a crumpled-up towel fresh from the dryer, or a newspaper section left on the floor. All of which cost nothing, really, while the store-bought stuff is disdained or dragged to the poo box and ruined.

Well, he's decided to be more emo than evil lately...
Heh! Gotta love the idiot cats. We have one of those, too. :D

The wife got a new camera today...

I still can't see.

She got some great shots of Idiot, though! One in particular is very.. Myspace Face. I'm planning on sharing it here, once she'd got them on the computer.

My cat condos have always been in a bedroom, except for the one dedicated pet room I've had. Still, barely any cats using the condo, and very inconsistently. The advertising must be super low is all I can figure, but I wouldn't even know how to check. I'm not a whiz at SimPE. Doing CAS template replacements took me three tries because I kept borking it up.

My older cat rarely plays with any toys, and then only ones that rattle. He prefers to pounce on the little one. The little one is always losing his toys under closet doors and couches and the tv stand. Doesn't matter. His favorite toys are my hair clips, which are insanely annoying to hear clinking around on the wood floors at night. The bastards can open drawers and doors, too, so it's a pain to hide them.

I had a cat autonomously sleep on a condo last night, despite the fact there were three catbeds in the room.

Thus proving that SimCats, like real ones, are just contrary!

Sim cats should also want to constantly be on the newspaper (especially if someone is using it), like real cats.

witch, I am impressed by your cunning, but the best way to get a cat to sleep somewhere is to wait till they jump on it, and then exclaim "Get off, there, you darn cat!"

My cats had a smaller version of this (http://www.catsplay.com/ff3cc.php3) which is the only cat bed I ever bought that they actually used. You can get all sorts of different combinations and build your own shape.

my real cats love their cheap version of this bed http://www.catsplay.com/bci119105.php3  (the cheap version is only $10 at BJs), when I bought the first one I didn't think any of our 3 cats would use it but within just a couple days they were fighting over it  :D 


I haven't let any of my sims have pets in ages but when I did the cats would sometimes sleep on the condo (but never in it).


I find it really annoying that pets can't sleep if a tv or radio is turned on in the same room!

That's the general issue where every single source of noise is considered to be a deafening boom, and sims cannot sleep through any kind of noise.

But large dog barking, cat yowling in the middle of the night, infant crying when held by someone - that isn't any noise at all. I'd really like to see a fix to that - no more so peaceful sleep at night, unless you disallow pets from your bedroom!  ;D

Mikko's favorite was similar to this cat pyramid (http://www.thecatconnection.com/page/TCC/PROD/BED-BEDS/BED-2056), though it was more of a vinyl material. It had a pom-pom attached at the top that he liked to play with, and was very fun to roll off the couch, apparently. Soren used a carpet teepee as scratching post, toy, and bed when he was little...but he quickly got too huge. He prefers to sleep on my lap anyways.

Anyways, if some of us didn't learn how to sleep through yowling and whirring in the night, we'd never get any sleep.

When I got my kitten, a year ago, I also bought him a scratching post thing (that very much resembles the kitty condo, actually) with things hanging from it, and all the cats would do was scratch the post and bat at the hanging things.

That is, until we wanted to take one to the vet just last morning. Searched for him for quite some time, looking in his usual spots, fearing he'd snuck out to try and get something to eat (having been denied food since 10pm, as he was going in for a bit of an operation) ... Finally found him in the hut part at the base of his scratching post thing. And he did not want to leave.

Cats. ::)

I do wish that Sim cats would use the condo more. I seem to recall that being the only bedding I gave them in Unleashed, and they used it (I don't recall them sleeping on the floor and getting in the way, anyway) -- sometimes I like to give Sims more than one cat (I like the way cats interact with each other, friendly or otherwise) and I'd prefer to just buy one condo, instead of multiple pet beds. I do have, and use, those one-tile pet beds, but still...

My cat is now ignoring her new $6.50 bed and is sleeping on the carpet in the middle of the lounge. (My RL cat, that is).  ::)

I haven't bothered to buy any specific cat-furniture. Everyone knows cats stubbornly refuse to use them until you try to throw them out, anyway.

Maybe your cat is afraid of heights. Like, anything more than 2 cms.  :D

Mine love their cat condo- at least the top of it. It's a Prime sleeping location. Plus, it's next to the stairs right now, and means they don't have to actually walk all the way DOWN the stairs and around the corner, they can short cut through the railing and down their condo without having to jump terribly far (Yes, they're lazy) I also think they like it because they can watch the door, the stairs, and the entire first floor from the perch. The fraidy one also likes to sleep in the tunnel part when he's brave enough to leave from under the couch but still too scared to be out in the open- like when we've had guests for more than a couple hours. They also use it for claw sharpening. This is the 2nd one we've bought them, and they took to it right away. All of them definitely like being over my head. LOL

Good thought, but no.  :D  This cat likes her possie on top of the carport roof where she can watch the neighbourhood pets and people going about their business. I think she just likes being contrary.

It could be that it's too new. Pet beds are usually ignored in my apartment until they've sat around for a few days. I've taken to putting a sock and a catnip rattle toy inside them and that seems to solve the issue. My kitties love sleeping on my clothes. With Soren, it's just because he's a total momma's boy, with Mikko I suspect it's that I purposely used to lay clothing over any surface I thought he'd be remotely interested in sleeping in when he was little (the theory being that he would get used to my scent and therefore de-feralize faster).