The problem with buying things for cats is that you never know what they’ll like. Jake didn’t like the dog bed until we put a baby blanket in it. Shannon didn’t like it until we got her one of her own and put it in the sunroom. Both of them would rather shred our papers than play with cat toys.
You have to have a box and litter, though!
I don’t know how I missed pricing the litter and boxes! I did see something a few weeks ago on Facebook that looked liked it could be modified for a litter box. It was a “cat house” for feral cats, and consisted of a Styrofoam cooler turned upside down, with a bed of straw and a door cut in the end. I will have to think on it and price the ones in the store, along with the coolers.
We had a cat who preferred paper bags and cardboard milk boxes (the kind you got at the commissary with six half-gallon cartons of milk in them) and shunned a real bed. He slept at the foot of our bed, but that was probably because we had an electric blanket, and the foot of the bed has the most heat tape.
He was happiest with things that made noise, like my son’s slot cars, as well as balls and yarn. He was strange...he liked green peppers and cantaloupe.