Sunday, August 17, 2008

The Cat House

When Bob Walker and Frances Mooney moved into their current home with their five cats in the late 1980s, they decided to modify their home to make it a more cat-friendly environment.

They started with a floor-to-ceiling scratching column covered in 395 feet of pink-dyed sisal and connected to a wall-to-wall beam just below ceiling height.

“Initially, the cats would run full speed down the hall chasing each other, go up and over the top of the two couches and climb up the column and race along the beam and hit a dead end where it connected to the wall," says Walker.

To solve this problem, they extended the beams through the walls, running them from room to room to create 140 feet of cat pathways. They added more roaming space with ramps and staircases.

These walkways lead to ceiling-high hiding-holes and lookout stations, because as Walker explained, “everyone knows cats like to look down on us.”

Walker and Mooney have written a book that goes into more detail about their pet friendly home modifications, which is entitled The Cat's House.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - that's beautiful! Lovely idea, the cats must adore it, and it adds something to the house decor too! Brilliant!

I'm happy that the cats aren't declawed too. Horrible practice. :(

Melissa said...

That's a pretty cool looking room for the cats! Our cat would certainly like it.

Anonymous said...

I agree, jay! Declawing cats is not just like pulling a persons fingernails out, cat's rely on their claws so much, it is more like removing a persons fingers to the first knuckle. :(

Might have to think about something like this for my cat, he claws up my furniture something rotten when he is in a crazy mood!