Modern Stupidity

I always get a kick out of high end pet toys or furniture. Paying an exorbitant amount of money for something your cat or dog is going to destroy is hilarious to me. Spending over $250 on an item they're meant to destroy...even better. I found this on a Modern Contemporary design(aka: snooty) blog. For those of you who don't know much about cat accessories let me explain. Cats like to claw, particularly nice expensive furniture. I have a theory that where some animals in the wild kingdom can smell fear, cats can smell money. This is a game to them. They have a running tally in their heads of the gross retail value which they've maimed and/or utterly destroyed (more points for the latter of course). After destroying an item or items they go hang out with their cat friends and compare to see who has done the most destruction that week. I'm not sure if the winner gets a prize or if its purely ceremonial but never the less a winner is chosen and that cat can hold their head even higher for that one week. Dogs have a similar game but typically aren't allowed in the cat's league for obvious reasons. At any rate because cats like to claw furniture someone came up with the great, environmentally friendly, and semi-inexpensive alternative to a wood or carpet scratching post by gluing cardboard strips together to form a nice flat scratching surface. You can find these at pretty much any pet store and they're relatively cheap, although for the materials they should be cheaper. Cats love them! The moment they step onto the cardboard they start scratching like mad, it's great! They're happy, your furniture is happy, its a win win. Within a couple weeks to a month however(depending on how many cats you have and how often they use it) the board starts to become worn and gross looking. The cat(s) have attacked it with all the fervor of an Italian leather ottoman and it shows. Gaping craters are all that remains of once uniform cardboard strips and brown confetti shrapnel litters the floor in the surrounding blast zone. Which is where the idea of spending forty plus dollars on any cardboard-esk cat item becomes ridiculous. The Cat Cocoon as I believe its called retails for $298. $298!!! It's cardboard! Granted it's lazercut cardboard and it does look pretty cool but it's still cardboard and any cat that receives this hip little item will go Edward Scissorhands on it not only because its made out of cardboard but because they can smell the retail price, and this potent combo will send them into a contact high that even Cheech and Chong would admire. So to the people out there who actually purchased this item I laugh at you and your Modern Contemporary Stupidity, but at least your cat was the winner for that week...