Katie’s favourite place is still the windowledge in the kitten room, but it’s only about an inch wide, so there’s no way she’s going to fit on it once she’s bigger. On top of that, she’s giving Richard and I palpitations watching her jumping on and off. We therefore decided that we needed to widen the windowledge and build some sort of more gradual route for her to get up and down. We also wanted it to be removable so that the room makes a better spare room when it’s not being used for kittens.
Our solution was to create a ‘play centre’ with two scratching posts supporting the wider ledge, with then a flight of stairs covered with scratchy carpet leading up to the ledge. We also needed a way to block up the gap under the bed, because we don’t want the girls taking their kittens into the back corner where we can’t reach them. The solution to that problem was to build a set of under-bed storage boxes, which can then double as somewhere to keep all of the kitten ‘paraphernalia’.
We spent most of Saturday in the garden with the circular saw, mitre saw and an assortment of drill and counter-sink bits! The weekend was roasting, so being outside was no bad thing, although I did get a bit sunburnt. Sunday was then spent preparing the room by giving it a thorough clean and getting the play centre/windowledge, under-bed storage, and birthing box set up.
- Play Centre
Katie has got the idea immediately, and uses the stairs to get on and off the windowledge. It looks like Dàrna is going to take a bit more work, since she generally just leaps onto the ledge from the floor, and then launches herself off the side when she wants down again!
Much as I love sunny weather, I’m hoping it cools off again soon, because even with fans positioned around the house, the cats are still getting too hot. Poor Call keeps ‘splatting’ on his tummy on any bit of cool floor, and Katie’s definitely feeling the heat.