Ran across the stories about the Designer Cat Habitat, and ever since have been surfing for ideas on how to make my home more cat-friendly. I've also been looking for ideas for cat furniture that don't involve the usual boring geometric shapes covered with rope & carpet.
Below are some links to stuff. Unfortunately, most of them are commercial sites. Please don't take this as any kind of endorsement or encouragement to buy anything; I just want to show examples of designs I found interesting or curious.
In fact, I encourage you to build you own cat furniture. You can start getting ideas here.
I got some ideas from these:
This is innovative; ugly as all get out, but it still scores points for being able to make something out of next to nothing.
I don't really like this either; but {1} no rope or carpet, and {2} it would be easy to keep clean if cat hair allergies are an issue.
And it might look cool if, say, you wanted to create an indoor rock garden, maybe with a water feature, some tufts of tall cat grass, and some boulder~shaped kitty pillows... is that the theme to Ground Force I hear?
Hey look, no rope or carpet.
Designed particularly with fat cats in mind...
The KittyPod, or the ArchiPod, would be excellent for the sophisticated loft-owner with minimalist tastes. Make your own, you've got cardboard.
And then there are the igloos. You can make one of those. And this is for you Sandman fans. Looks simple enough. The baby grand, however, looks daunting...
Bringing new meaning to the word housecat: If you can't afford a small house for yourself, you can have a small house for your kitty. Literally.
I can see the appeal if I were filming a short student film about a fifty foot feline, but other than that they're just a wee bit too prissy for me. Still, they're a hell of a lot better than plain old carpet & rope... carpet and rope, carpet and rope, bloody everywhere, carpet and rope...
But if you've got a lot of carpet & rope, and you like to make dollhouses, then maybe this will inspire you. Yes, that is an Airstream. Make a cactus and a pueblo to go with it, throw in a little siisal~wrapped ox~skull, put Georgia O'Keefe posters on the wall and pretend you & the cats have retired to New Mexico.
And you may as well try your hand at making a litterbox house while you're at it.
'Twould make a good collection of cat furniture for people who feel guilty about keeping their cats indoors. "Why, it's like having a whole neighborhood inside your home."
If you like the idea of bringing the outside inside, take a look at Jungle Rooms. For the big cat in your little cat.
More faux fauna: I thought these were pretty cool... that is, until I saw THESE. Check em out: outside; inside. Massive.
Embarassing though it is to admit, while the tiny houses do not really appeal to me, this scaled~down furniture really does.
{I don't care what you say, it is not dolly furniture. It is not dolly furniture. La la la, I can't hear you, la la la.}
With this stuff in the house, the cats will finally break out the cocktail shakers, martini glasses and Rat Pack music they've been hiding all these years. Now if only I could get them to wear the little Dean Martin tuxedos...
Wouldn't mind having a Mousehat~size version of this one myself.
~ ~ ~
In the end, I'll probably cobble together a feline~friendly environment with whatever packrat~hoarded materials I have on hand, along with anything I can scrounge or pick up cheap.
But hey, it's nice to dream...
Posted by edgar at August 28, 2003 03:47 PM