We all know people who have either added onto their home or hope to. Kitchen expansions, sunrooms, porches, mother-in-law flats, extra storage rooms. In my case, my home expansion is a bit out of the ordinary. I am adding onto the indoor/outdoor space for my cats. I am creating a Cat-trium.
Why, you may ask, is this such a priority for me in this new year? My eleven cats have indicated they need more space. Can this be true? After all, cats sleep 23 hours a day, right? Well, not my cats, who seem to have an extraordinary sense of adventure and need for freedom.
Let me back up a bit to November and December 2011, when a few of my younger cats escaped to the outdoors and ran around like wild cougars. My cats sleep very little. They are too busy watching, listening, and studying the traffic patterns of two-leggeds and four-leggeds as they approach doors leading to the outside. My cats would sit patiently for hours, waiting and most certainly strategizing, as to how they could best escape in the few short seconds a door was opened. After several totally stressed out weeks with frequent cat escapes, I found myself contemplative. Then one day my all black kitty Midnight, who I call My Escape Artist, escaped. It took two humans and four dogs to corral him back inside. How could I give the cats more sense of the outdoor life while still keeping them safe from the coyotes that roam the local terrain?
Another indication that the cats gave me in their need for more space was the unpleasant surprise of several of them urinating in front of me to get my attention. And no, it was not in their litter boxes. All indications were that the cats were not going to give up until some negotiations were made. After cleaning up cat urine more than a few times, I was definitely ready to negotiate.
An outdoor expansion to the cats' present space would provide more area to run, more room for adventure, and a greater taste of nature. I would include a few branches to climb upon, and nature would provide countless bird species to watch. While initially I believed that my partially filled three-car garage and the cats' present 200 square feet of protected outdoor space was enough for them, they were clearly telling me otherwise.
I put the word out for help, and a contractor friend of a friend just happened to have free time before beginning his next job. And lucky for me, he was an animal lover. His talents quickly revealed themselves. His initial observations were, " Let's add 200 more square feet and take very large branches from your overgrown ficus trees and bolt them onto the sides for the cats to climb. I will add wooden boxes for the cats to hide in and high shelves for climbing and sleeping. And since we are expanding out into the yard significantly, let's put three feet of translucent plastic boards around all sides of the structure, so coyotes can't see them."
I think what we are building may the best of both worlds! Plenty of outdoor adventure for the cats while also keeping them safe from predators. We are in the first stages of this Cat-trium, Stay tuned!
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