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| Miss Maggie |
Since arriving at our new home in Whitefish, we
have had a child gate installed on the stairs to keep the cats from going into
the carpeted areas of the house. (For
those of you who have been reading this blog since its inception, you will know
that we have two cats – Maggie, a 16-year old veteran who lords it over Josie,
2 years her junior. Maggie persists with
her dominance despite her advanced age and an obvious hitch in one of her hips.) The gate is partly for our benefit (avoids
the necessity to clean cat puke and other secretions from the carpet) and
partly for Maggie’s benefit – we don’t think it’s good for her hips to use the
stairs, and she is already at a low weight.
Despite the gate, we have discovered Josie
upstairs numerous times. It was a
question for the ages. Was she jumping
the gate? Squeezing through it? Bumping the gate until the spring
released?
While puzzling over this, it occurred to us that maybe she
was feeling restricted and bored. (It
should be noted that we were also finding litter on the black kitchen
countertops each morning – she was clearly jumping up on them at night to get
to higher ground.) So, we decided young
Josie needed a cat tree. With time on
our hands and the budget of the retired on our minds, we determined that we
would build our own cat tree rather than resort to PetSmart.
We looked for a used step ladder at the ReStore,
but no luck there had us in Lowe’s to buy our raw goods (and Spousal Unit gets
all the credit for the measurements, etc. to make sure the thing would actually
go together!) Below are several pictures
of the tree in progress.
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| In the garage |
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| Fabric added to platform |
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| Platforms attached to ladder |
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| Finished! |
And I am pleased to say that Josie is using the
tree – see below.
Linking to Mosaic Monday
Ha-ha! That's great! Jingles is always looking to go higher and when she can't, she looks for places to hide. No matter what I do, she finds her way into one of my cupboards to sleep the day away. Fabulous job on the cat tree.
ReplyDeleteI do think we need to add a 'hidey-hole' of some type on one of the platforms - cats do really like somewhere small they can crawl into!
DeleteWell she had you hoodwinked for a while but you sorted things out to the benefit of you all - that's a win-win in my book. I loved the remark about 'Maggie persisting with her dominance despite her age', I so related to that!
ReplyDeleteWe rescued the cats from the shelter many years ago, and they already had their names. I do think both names suit their personalities!
DeleteClever - clever to find out that she was using the window sill - and clever to build her a tree house.
ReplyDeleteOur son tells us she has gotten through the gate again while we have been gone ... hmmm. May need more intervention!
DeleteI love your cats! We have two also. Sam who is 17 and wandered into our lives one winter. And Bessie was our neighbor's cat until she liked us better...lol She is 5. Great idea about the ladder! :) Kit
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of cats who hang in our back yard - they appear to be hunting birds ... Spousal Unit says no more pets!
DeleteYour cat is so sweet. It is funny to see him and I am smiling to him!
ReplyDeleteThe last three photos, he looks like he knows his place,(#^.^#)！
Josie definitely owns the tree - Maggie has not attempted to climb on it.
DeleteAngie, The cat tree looks spacious and comfortable. Good idea! Thanks for sharing photos of the cats and the project. Have a great week. Sylvia D.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog again! Wishing you a fun-filled week!
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