Cat furniture

I left the whole cat-n-caboodle under the night stand over night, which seems to be their preferred home. I slept to the sound of trilling and purring, which I have finally got used to. This morning I tried something different: I placed the kittens back in their nest in the wardrobe and closed the door! Maybe that will keep them there – I’ll see when I get home.

I’ve been surfing the net for ideas for indoor cat furniture. There are a lot of simple DIY suggestions. I even saw furniture available online in South Africa – but the prices! Eish! I have some ideas that I think even I can manage. Since both mommies seem to like a box-like environment – low ceiling, only a front entrance, walls on three sides, that’s what I should aim for. I could use a simple cardboard box – I have plenty of those in the garage! The mommies also like to take time out on an elevated surface (currently on my bed), which the kittens can’t reach. Yet. Soon they’ll need somewhere higher to escape the brood. It should also be sturdy, so it doesn’t topple over if a mommy leaps onto the perch. The simplest way to make something topple-proof is to add weight to the floor. They also need some scratching post. Also simple: wrap rope around whatever tightly fitting so it covers the entire post. Stick it with either glue or simply several strips of double-sided tape. Staying with simple, to build the perch, use some large-diameter PVC pipes – I can wrap those in rope for scratching as well. Four pipes, one in each corner, then I can simply put a board on top – it doesn’t even have to fit! So, I’ll need some wooden boards for the base and the perch, large diameter PVC pipes, loads of rope and double-sided tape. I do have a saw, so I can cut the boards and the pipes – no problem. I am quite tempted to pop in at the hardware store on my way home today!

And as a cherry on top, I asked if I could leave work early – permission granted! Yay! So, let us see what we can find to play with!

Well, Builders Express is a service nightmare! For interrupting staff chatting, they sent me to the wrong aisle – it turns out they have no clue! I found another employee who took me to the rope then spun around and rushed off ... so I looked around and made my selection. Not that there are many options! Next I got lucky and found the aisle with the tape – got some double-sided and some blue duct tape. They have duct tape in all colours! Then I looked around the wood section, but I didn’t have measurements so I left it. I found the plumbing section all by myself as well and took a load of connectors – while I grabbed another employee to get me the pipe fitting those connectors (since that’s not in the shop, but kept in their store). Just made one teensy little mistake: Instead of 3-way and 4-way connectors I took 2-way and 3-way ones. All wrong – as I found out when I got started, back home!

Back home my neighbour and I spent about an hour with the kittens! I took lots of photos – but don’t have time to select & edit them for posting tonight. Time flies when you’re playing with kittens! We put them all on the bed so we could pick and play to our hearts content! The two mommies only mind when a kitten cries, otherwise they’re quite fine with us two fussing over them – as long as we don’t neglect the mommies!

Well, I got busy playing with my new project! First I needed to clean the pipes, they were quite dirty. Then I started cutting them – I had them cut to 2m length, so I’m cutting them ½ m long. Fortunately I was smart enough to get a file, so I can smooth off then ends after sawing. I put down newspaper under my work area, but I will need to vacuum the shavings. When I started putting the pipes together with the connectors I realized my mistake. Not a problem, though, it’s a standard pipe so I should be able to get the right ones just about anywhere. Builders didn’t have them. I’ve cut up 4 pipes so far and connected them in a temporary frame – I don’t want to use glue or fit them permanently, so I can take it apart when I move. Keep it simple. Plus, that means I can re-arrange it when I feel like it. If I cut up another two pipes and put them together the same way, I can make at least one perch, even without the right connectors! But I better stop for tonight, it’s nearly eight and I still haven’t eaten, packed lunch or bathed!

I didn’t find any PVC sheeting to use as walls, nor did I find any carpet at Builders, so for now I got some Styrofoam ceiling boards. They’re ½ m squares, hence my choice to cut them into ½ lengths. Also, the pipes were 2m each, so ½ m works out even. Well, I better post this, then eat, bath, bed.