Cat Furniture I Want

     As I mentioned in my last post, I really love the idea of utilizing the high vaulted ceiling in our living room to build some cat furniture.  I want to give our new cat Obsidian a place to be up high so he can be near us but also feel safe, and have his own territory.

     There was a TV show I used to watch on the Animal Planet called "My Cat From Hell", where a cat behavior specialist named Jackson Galaxy comes to people's homes to meet their cat and to help the owners achieve a good relationship with their cat and to help them understand their cat better.  It's really a great show; I highly recommend it!  You can find full episodes on YouTube or on Amazon.  Anyway, this show is where I first heard of a "catio" (a cat patio), and where I first saw the idea of putting wall shelves up so the cat can access high areas.  I want that for our cat.

     Also in his show, Jackson explained that some cats are tree-dwellers who prefer to be high up, and some are bush-dwellers who prefer to be at ground level.  I'm not yet sure which one Obsidian is because right now he's in "keep me away from that kid" mode, so he looks for various hiding places to get away from our son, most of which are down low.  But he likes being up on window sills, so I think what I have in mind for him will be to his liking.

     I've looked on the internet for ideas, and here's what I want (sorry about the big spacing between the pictures; it's because I copied them from the internet and so I can't fix it).

 Here's the picture of our living room and the space I want to use:

The cat tree arrived yesterday.  I put it upstairs by the railing, and it was pretty wobbly so I bolted it to the pantry so that it won't tip over when the cat's on the top landing.  That big long wall above the tropical picture is where I want all these goodies to be (and I'll have to relocate the picture).

 I want very simple sturdy wall shelves that will go along the wall in two directions from the cat tree: two or three shelves going down to the mantle above the fireplace, and then three or four shelves going up the wall, like this:

The ones going up the wall will lead to an overhead walkway like this one, which will extend 3-4 feet out from the wall into the living room: 

 

And the walkway will lead to a cat loft like this:

 

From down below it'll look something like this:

 

     That's what I'd like to have for our cat.   The guy who came up with this ceiling setup lives in Germany, and you can buy these things from his company but it'll cost over $500 to make and ship them.  Plus, since our ceiling is vaulted and at a fairly steep slant, I'd need it to be custom-made for my specific house anyway.  So I'm going to tackle this project myself.

     The problem is that I've never done something like this before.  Yesterday I went to Home Depot and picked out the wood and the rope I thought I would need.  But as I was standing in the reciprocating saw section I felt overwhelmed and I called Mc on the phone and said with dismay, "I don't know what I'm doing!"  I figured out a chainsaw easily enough a couple of years ago, but I've never used a reciprocating saw before, and learning a new power tool with sharp blades makes me nervous.  I suppose I could pay someone to come do this project for me, but I don't know anyone around here who does this kind of thing.

     Besides, I want to do it.  I like working with my hands and I like the feeling of seeing a project completed that I've worked on.  Like when I chainsawed our oleander bushes a couple of years ago-- that was gratifying.  But I don't have the skills to do something like this cat project.  I took a close look at the pictures online and I can guess at how these were assembled, and I watched a few videos online to see how cat trees are made, but I don't know exactly how this guy did this particular project.  And our cat's safety will depend on my building and installing this thing correctly!

     Basically, I know what I want and I also want to be the one to do it, but I can't do it alone.  I will need to find someone who's done woodwork and installation like this before who can show me how it should be assembled and secured to the ceiling.  I want it to look good and I need it to be secure and safe for Obsidian.  The last thing I want is for the whole thing to come loose from the ceiling and crash to the floor and injure the cat and anyone who happens to be under it at the time, you know what I mean?

     So yeah, this is what I want to do.  :)  And I need to do it sooner than later so Obsidian can feel secure and he can observe Little One from a safe and unreachable distance.  He hasn't hissed or bitten Little One, which is a good sign that he'll be a great pet for our whole family.  They'll get used to each other soon, but in the meantime I need to constantly keep Little One from seeking and bothering Obsidian, and I need to keep Obsidian's stress levels down; I think this completed project will help a lot.