Our architectural masterpiece - Rolz on top shelf, Mia (left) and Peanut (right) on "arms," Zee on perch, and Zoey inside the heart shaped doorway

On the surface, it would appear that Dan and I are a bit crazy when it comes to our cats. However, it turns out you don’t have to dig much further to find out crazy is only the tip of the iceberg with us and a very polite word for our over the top behavior. Point in fact – we determined our cats were “bored” and outgrowing their current four-story cat condo and decided it was critical we build them a custom created, five story unit, lest we be condemned for mistreating our cats to live such a life of woe and cramped misery. 

Truthfully, the old condo was a bit worse for the wear. We had gotten it prior to Zoey and it was showing extreme signs of neglect due to its many years of use. The bottom, or ground floor was an open area with four carpeted columns supporting the rest of the condo and was almost bare to the plywood from all the cat scratching. The second floor had a barn type of housing enclosure and had a very small front door opening with very ordinary square windows. The next floor was a tiny rectangular resting shelf and the top floor was also a rectangular piece that had  upright sides about 4 inches high that gave it  the feeling of a carpeted box and it was Rolz’s primary place of residence during his afternoon naps. Based on this boring description, clearly this would not do. This is Zee and Zoey folks…. Nothing ordinary allowed, remember?

Rolz, clearly outgrowing his favorite napping spot

                                                                                                                                                            I caught Dan sketching one night and he had grand plans indeed for these cats. He took the whole cat condo out in the garage to rip it apart, piece by piece, to determine what pieces we could salvage for his architectural masterpiece and we endlessly discussed the exterior and interior design options until we felt we had the perfect blueprint for our beloved babies. In a nutshell, he enlarged the size of the barn housing on the second floor and created a custom heart opening to signify the love Zee and Zoey have for one another. If that was not enough, he then had me print the customized Zee/Zoey monogram, to size, so that he could use it as a pattern for his scroll saw as he cut special Z/Z windows on each side of the housing structure. He kept the original little sitting perch and added an entirely new floor –  carpeted “balance-beam arms” that extended out several feet on both the left and right side of the center supporting column. Each one held a unique sleeping apparatus – one has a round cozy hatbox type of bed and the other is a half tube structure that lets the kitties stretch out a bit. Rolz got to keep his top sleeping box, but it was now on the fifth floor and was bigger in size to accommodate the growing needs of him. Sometimes Mia and Peanut would snuggle up there with him as well, so this gave them all of them more room. We also constructed a special ramp on the bottom floor to not only to scratch on, but to use as a fun shortcut to climb up the rest of the condo!

This is only the half of the story – I have given you the basic structural elements but have left out all the little details. The bottom floor now has each of the four columns wrapped in a heavy rope that is perfect for little claws to scratch on. The housing barn is lined on the exterior with a special leopard print fabric that matches Zoey’s coat and was painstaking cut and glued by me to fit around the Z/Z monogram and the heart shaped door opening. I am finally starting to feel my fingertips after burning myself at least a hundred times with the hot glue gun. This leopard fabric was also used to line the hatbox sleeping bed and the tubular bed. I even dragged my sewing machine out of storage and made a special leopard sleeping pad with poly-fluff stuffing to put on the floor of the housing structure. We also went to Home Depot and picked up a lush remnant of carpet to replace the worn out areas of the old condo that we salvaged and to cover the new structures we created. Is anyone feeling the crazy yet?

To finish it off, we added hooks to hang special toys (one of which was a unique leopard heart shaped toy with feathers that I made with the leftover scraps of fabric). The whole ordeal was actually quite fun for Dan and I, but not so much for the cats – especially Rolz who went into a deep depression when his old condo was moved to the garage for several days for the renovation. He had no idea what was going on and was visibly upset that his favorite top shelf napping area was gone. We brought the partially assembled piece back into the living room at one point when we were gluing the leopard fabric around the Z/Z and the cats were absolutely insane with curiosity and getting in the way of everything with their non-stop sniffing, climbing, and snooping. Zoey was already gnawing at the logo area I had so carefully worked on, trying to rip the fabric from the wood. Dan and I could quickly see that this cat condo would show signs of wear quite quickly!

When it was all completely, 100% done and we brought it back in, all seven of then came to investigate every nook and cranny all at once like a crazy throng of Black Friday Christmas shoppers. Each took turns trying out the different sleeping areas and Rolz immediately claimed the top shelf as his again. Once they got over the initial exploration stage, the real fun began as the circus literally came to town! The dangling toys were swatted at, each and every column was scratched on, the arms were used as a balance beam act and we would frequently find the cats hanging upside down from these arms. They run full speed up to the condo and jump up and down each story chasing one another.  They stretch and scratch the rope and carpeted areas constantly and also use the condo to play hide and seek.  It really is like watching a three ring circus with each floor of the condo a different performing act at the same time and it can be quite dizzying and entertaining to watch! Then, once they settle down, you will find anywhere from one to seven cats sleeping in it – one will be in the barn house, one on the small perch, one in each of the custom beds and one or more snuggled in the top shelve. Despite all the hard work and knowledge that one day, this too will be worn out to certain destruction, it was still worth all the crazy. They really love this condo and it makes Dan and I so happy knowing that they genuinely appreciate all our hard work and effort. Plus, the entertainment they provide us is well worth the price of admission!

Doot doot doodle oodle oot doot do do doodle…