My Maine Coon Kitten Refuses to Share 'His' Cat Tree Like a Total Tyrant

I have a 5-month old Maine Coon kitten named Meatball. One thing about Maine Coon cats and kittens is that these gorgeous creatures need to be able to climb and to sharpen their nails. Plus, climbing allows them to not only get some exercise and some mental stimulation, but all cats love surveying their kingdoms from a high vantage point.

Even if their kingdom is just my living room. Meatball has recently started trying to climb the blinds in my house, so the lovely people at Mau offered to send me one of their designer cat trees.

Meatball was pretty excited about this. I probably could have left the tree in the box and he would have been cool with it.

After unboxing the tree, Meatball decided to "help" put it together.

The tree was super easy to put together and incredibly sturdy. Considering one day Meatball could weigh between 18-22 pounds when he's an adult it's pretty important that anything he climbs on can be able to support him. At 5 months, he weighs about 12 pounds, so he's a big boy! There's absolutely no wobble to the tree at all. The second the tree was built he explored it.

And then our other cat (well, technically she's a cat that belongs to our dog) decided that she also wanted to try out the tree and that didn't go over so well.

Meatball has decided that this is his tree and no one else can use it. We put our tiny Pomeranian in the tree because he adores anything with faux fur, which the baskets of this Mau tree have, and we thought he'd like snuggling up in it. You can remove the faux fur pads and they are machine washable, which any pet owner can appreciate.

Our Maine Coon wasn't having it. Now, Meatball is the sweetest kitten ever. He sleeps with me every night and purrs like a freight train. He cuddles with the other cats and the dog and has never showed any aggression before. He even has a few toys that he loves playing fetch with and he's cool with the other cats also playing with them.

But he has decided this cat tree is his and he's not about to share with anyone.

Maine Coon cats can be stubborn and territorial, and they can also be destructive when they're bored. Meatball loves lounging in the cat tree and swatting at the balls, and thank goodness Mau sells replacement parts for the faux fur balls because I can see Meatball destroying those pretty quickly.

I was reluctant to get a cat tree because of how it would look in my house, but the Mau tree, the Ivy 3, looks beautiful. Most of them on the market are pretty ugly and scream 'I'm a crazy cat lady,' but the Ivy 3 looks more like a modernist sculpture and doesn't have that weird carpet covering most cat trees have.

Maybe it's the novelty of the cat tree which is making Meatball reluctant to share with the other cats but to be honest I'm thrilled that he loves it so much. My other cats are old and well-trained so they don't scratch the furniture or climb up the blinds and since building this tree Meatball is climbing it and sharpening his nails on his murder mittens all over it.

My sister, who is the cat mom of Meatball's brother, purchased her own Mau cat house, and her kitties are all sharing it nicely.

Now, I just have to teach Meatball to be more like his brother and that sharing is good manners!

You can find this tree and all of the other gorgeous items Mau sells for cats by visiting their website.

*Note: Mau sent me the Ivy 3 cat tree for reviewing purposes. I was not compensated for this post, and all of the opinions expressed are my own and were not influenced by Mau in any way.