Ikea has made the best use possible of the brand’s Duktig doll beds — beyond providing a place for dolls to rest their heads. In 2017, the company donated its doll beds to an animal shelter in Toronto, Canada, for the shelter’s cats to enjoy.
And of course, the cats are big fans of these tiny beds!
Ikea gave 10 of the Duktig doll beds to the cats after Rebecca Gordon, social media manager at the Etobicoke Humane Society, saw a picture online of a cat sitting on a doll bed. Other clever cat parents have discovered the use for this doll bed, including Twitter user @BestPuppiesPics, who posted a photo of their sweet kitty all tucked up in its Ikea doll bed.
Bought my cat a bed in IKEA pic.twitter.com/Rxqay9CJK1
— Puppies Pics (@BestPuppiesPics) March 10, 2017
After spotting this use for the Ikea doll beds, Gordon reached out to the company to find out if they might be willing to help.
“They were more than happy to help us out and said that they’d love to give us the beds,” Gordon told The Toronto Star in an interview.
And it wasn’t just the 10 doll beds that Ikea donated to the animal shelter. The company, entirely by coincidence, had also planned to donate $300 to the Etobicoke Humane Society .
“The (Ikea) location in Etobicoke was already fundraising for a charity and it just so happened that they chose the Humane Society, so on the day we called about the beds, they told us about the $300 donation the staff raised,” Gordon told the Toronto Star.
The beds received rave reviews from the shelter’s feline residents. The dapper Catsby can be seen in this video posted to Twitter, settling into one of the little cat-sized beds.
Catsby is not quite sure what he's gotten himself into #duktigbed #AdoptDontShop pic.twitter.com/BAM7f4ptC2
— Etobicoke Humane Soc (@EtobHumaneSoc) April 12, 2017
And this tweet shows little Jenny enjoying her own snuggly new spot.
Jenny is adorable on the #duktigbed https://t.co/ZR1JuD1Eiy pic.twitter.com/lHGytS74Ua
— Etobicoke Humane Soc (@EtobHumaneSoc) May 6, 2017
Having raised surfaces for the cats to sleep on is crucial in an animal shelter where the floor must be easy-to-clean concrete, for obvious reasons. Although a concrete floor is the most sanitary option, it’s pretty cold and not very comfortable for snuggling up for a, well, cat nap.
So the Duktig doll beds provide more than just a cute photo op (although they are, in fact, unbearably cute). They’re also important tools for helping scared shelter cats feel a little more comfortable.
You can watch some shelter volunteers putting the beds together in this video posted to the shelter’s YouTube page. See if you can spot feline residents Frankie and Catsby enjoying their new napping spots!
What a great use for tiny Ikea beds!
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories.
