Cats are the reason placemats exist in most homes. A dog eats over the bowl and largely stays there; a cat will hook wet food out with a paw, eat it off the floor, then walk away leaving a short trail of gravy footprints. Catching that on a wipeable surface takes seconds to clear, whereas the same mess on grouted tile or an oiled wood floor is a proper job with a scrubbing cloth.

The design here is a floral cat print chosen for feline households, laid on a BPA-free PVC face over an EVA base. The thing to appreciate about that face is that it is completely non-porous. Fish-based wet food is one of the more persistent smells in a house, and it lingers because it soaks into fabric and unsealed surfaces. Nothing soaks into this, so the smell leaves when the food does.

• Floral cat print design
• 29.2 x 48.3 x 0.2cm, 60g
• BPA-free PVC and EVA
• Wipes clean after every meal
• Non-slip surface holds bowls steady
• Lies flat at just 2mm thick

One mat per cat, ideally. If you have more than one cat, feeding them at separate stations rather than side by side on a single mat cuts a surprising amount of quiet tension at mealtimes, and it lets you see who has actually eaten. Worth knowing before you buy just the one for a two-cat house.

Who it's for: Cat owners tired of wiping wet-food marks off the floor around the bowls every day.