Heavenly Kitty

Cat beds

KittyAdmin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:53:59 +0000

A few of the places cats sleep in were actually intended as cat beds….
Cats love sleeping at the top of a cat-tree.

Top of a cat-tree is a good place to be.

Lucky cats have their very own cat sofa to sleep on.

Cat-sized sofa!

Chairs are always good, but occasionally people forget to set them out the way they ought to for a cat. Still, a resourceful kitty will make do.

Comfortable enough for a cat.

But sometimes two chairs are needed to keep the peace!

You stick to your side and I'll stick to mine.

Laundry baskets and linen baskets were of course really invented as cat beds – or might as well have been.

Nice warm linens - mmm!

Cat houses

KittyAdmin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 07:27:18 +0000

Cats like houses and hiding places just as much as they like cat-trees. Lots of cat-trees have a cat house or condo built in.

Cat house incorporated into cat-tree.

Cat houses are fairly easy to make (instructions in a later post). My cats also love the soft ready-made houses now available, especially these barrels, which have padded interiors.

Soft-sided barrel is a popular cat sleeping place.

Some cats are pretty good at taking over any enclosed space and repurposing it as a cat house.

Coffee table has a different use for a cat.

Below is the most elegant cat-house ever: a Thai spirit house. Now with a resident cat-spirit!

This house is now mine!

Cat Walkways

KittyAdmin — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 04:55:52 +0000

After cat-trees and getting used to cats on the top of bookcases and cupboards, the next thing is walkways. My inspiration came from Bob Walker’s fabulous book ‘The Cats’ House’, which documents how they turned their house into a maze of high-level walkways for their cats.

The Cats' House by Bob Walker.

Once you realize that cats love to be up high for safety and the ability to see everything going on, it’s clear why most cats adore the Walkers system of ceiling-level feline paths. My first attempts were nothing like as artistic as theirs, but the cats loved them just the same.

Cat looks down from ceiling-level walkway.

Later versions had stairs and sleeping places.

Cat shelf with stairs and sleeping barrel.

Bob Walker’s routing and finish jobs are much superior. My walkways tend to be fairly wide, partly because it’s easier to fix them to the wall than suspend them away from it. Cats can walk on very thin rails but turning around needs more space.

Cat on a thin fence rail.

My 2x8s are overkill, but the cats get room to lounge around on them!

Repair a cat-tree

KittyAdmin — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:16:52 +0000

They love it. They tore it to shreds. Now they’re scratching slivers of wood or carboard off. You don’t want to spend the cash for another one yet. – Repair it!

Need repair before tube gets shredded!

If they’ve ripped the carpet off, get out a screwdriver and prize off the rest of the carpet on the section – they’re normally attached with staples hidden in the nap of the carpet.

Prise old carpet off with screwdriver

Figure out how much carpet you need and go to a carpet liquidator shop, or store that sells odds and ends of carpets. For a few bucks you can buy enough to fix the ripped parts.

Trim it to size; then staple it on.

Staple new carpet.

These days a lot of cheaper cat-trees have cardboard tubes for the legs, rather than wood. But you can still staple new carpet to those. If you don’t have a construction stapler use brads or adhesive.