Cat House

I have four cats.

Eryn Grace

Chance (back), Tommy (middle), Trouble (front)

Just like the Teen, there isn't a whole lot I wouldn't do for my cats.  They are as much a part of the family as the humans.

I learned early on they don't require special trips to Pet Smart for toys, though Chance did like the rabbit fur mice in his younger days.  Most of the time, they are content with ties to dresses or robes, or caps to water bottles, straws, boxes, my make up brushes, etc. Eryn has an affinity for pony tale holders and anything she can drop in the toilet.

I am always on the look out for practical ways to spoil my brats.  Knowing that most commercial products aimed at cat owners are a bust, I try to get creative.

And then one day, I was rolling through facebook and I found this link : DIY Cat Tent.  Seemed legit, so I pinned it to Pinterest.

I finally got around to digging out everything to complete the project today.  The source is basically just pictures, but it seems straight forward enough.  I gathered what I needed:  two wire hangers, a t-shirt, and my pliers.

The pics aren't great because I unexpectedly had to complete my project indoors, instead of outside, where there would have been better contrast than the hardwood floor.

First I straightened the wire hangers using my pliers.  I fashioned them into an X shape, using a small piece of duct tape to secure the top of the X.  I also bent the end into feet, like in the source material.

straighten the wire hanger

fashion into an X

Once they were bent, I tried to stand them up.  They slid back down into the X formation, above.  I tried it again.  Nope. Still sliding.

I got the bright idea at that point, to cap the little wire feet ends with duct tape, hoping it might (maybe) reduce the slippage, and protect my t-shirt from holes.  The result?  See picture above.

Thinking that the t-shirt would help, I began trying to shove the hangers into this epic t-shirt:

Do you know how hard it is to shove hangers into a t-shirt and keep the X formation?  Let me tell you, a mother of a toddler with five arm has it easier.  The hangers kept collapsing.  They wouldn't hold the X shape.  They slid; they fell.  I couldn't get the hole at the bottom for the entrance.  I was a little perturbed.

The inspiration picture has a cushion in the bottom. I started to suspect this was the key to the magic holding of the X shape. I didn't have one, and I wasn't about to purchase anything like a cushion for the cats, knowing my oldest would promptly do something foul.  But, I had a box from a case of water bottles.

I had to get a box

Ta Da!  The box held the hangers in the X formation!  And cats love boxes!

I taped the hanger into the corners:

And set off to shove the t-shirt over the frame.  I quickly found that my epic Goonies shirt was too small. So, I grabbed a shirt the teen had recently laid claim to.  This shirt was an XL. It took a minute, and some frustration, but I finally got the shirt over the frame and secured the back with a pony tale holder.  I left the arms open for paws and quick escapes.

As soon as I backed away from the tent, this is what happened:

What's this, Momma?

Blurry action shot of a paw stealing a ribbon

Eryn was the first one in the box.  She immediately saw the merit of using the box for a sneak attack on her brothers. She was in and out an arm hole so fast, Tommy had no idea what hit him.

Tommy was next in.  He's naturally high strung and a titch skittish, so he initially liked the idea of the covered box.  He also liked the arm hole escape.

Trouble peeked in.  Chance couldn't be bothered with it.  So, the initial reaction was 2 out of 4 cats liked the novelty of the idea.

The tent has been up for several hours and is thoroughly ignored.  The newness has worn off.  Going to leave it up for a day or two, to see if they reconsider, but it appears this idea was a flop.