What to buy the person whose cat runs the house

Buying for a cat owner is harder than buying for a dog owner, because the cat will have an opinion and it will be no. These seven ideas are for the human, with the cat in mind.

1. A window perch

A suction or sill-mounted perch gives a cat the thing it actually wants: a high, warm place to watch birds and judge the street.

2. A good brush

Unexciting, and used daily through an Australian summer of shedding.

3. A personalised front page

Ours, and we will say so. Send one photo and tell us what the cat is known for: the 3am sprint, the glass pushed off the bench, the closed door taken as a personal insult. We write it up as a newspaper front page and email print-ready files within 2 business days. Cats suit the format. They already behave like the subject of an investigation.

4. A puzzle feeder

Slows down fast eaters and gives indoor cats something to work at.

5. A pot of cat grass

A few dollars from a nursery, and it may save the house plants. Check any plant you give is safe for cats first; lilies in particular are dangerous to them.

6. A donation to a cat rescue

In the cat's name, with the card addressed to the cat.

7. A large cardboard box

We are only partly joking. Wrap the real present, put it in an oversized box, and everyone in the household gets something.

If there are two of them

For households with a cat and a dog, or two cats who are not speaking, our Double Trouble Edition makes a front page for each, and the two stories can refer to each other.