How to Build a Cat Tree

All in all this cost about $100 but the vast majority of that was for the sisal rope, which is optional. It took much more rope than I thought it would. I think I used about 350 ft of rope or something.

Here is the finished product.

First, wood. I got 2 pieces for platforms that were each 2'x2'. Plywood is ok, but I strongly recommend solid wood if you want it to last. Make sure it is at least 1/2" thick. I wish I'd used solid wood. You can decide what shape you want each platform to be. I wanted mine to fit nicely in a corner and have a stair-step pattern, so the bottom platform I cut out a 1'x1' square. For the second platform, I cut the other piece in half. Then the top part is the 1'x1' square that was cut out of the bottom platform. I seriously considered making the bottom part basically closed in between the bottom legs, with wood blocking most of the sides so they would have a little cave at the bottom. If I ever make another cat tree I'll try it that way.

For the legs, I used 2"x4" boards. Or actually, they might have been wall studs. Make them whatever height you want. For mine, the bottom legs are 1' tall. The long ones are 2' tall, and supporting the top platform are also 1'.

I built it from the bottom up. USE SCREWS to put the legs on. I used nails first. It pulled apart way too easily so I had to pull the nails and redo it with screws. For the tall legs, they were not completely flush against the corner of the bottom and top platforms, they are inward and inch and 1/2 or so. This was because the bottom legs were already nailed in at the corner.

Notice the little wedges in the corners of the tall legs. This is for added support. Your cats will likely be running full speed and jumping onto the cat tree sometimes. Support is important for safety! I simply cut piece diagonally and screwed them in.

Be careful when attaching wedges! This one broke in the corner after I'd already pounded in 2 nails. Doh! It stayed that way, because it was getting wrapped with rope.

Next, rope! Do this BEFORE CARPET so you don't get glue on the carpet. "Sisal" is the kind of rope you find on cat trees, so that's what I got. I used Gorilla Glue because it adheres to wood, and it EXPANDS when it dries- thus expanding deep into the fibers of the rope. WEAR GLOVES!!! I got a pack of latex gloves, so I wouldn't care that they got all gluey.

Ok, so I put a notecard down on the cement under the bottom legs. This was to prevent the cat tree from getting glue to the cement. I would put a fat squiggle of glue around all 4 sides of the leg, then smear it into an even coat using another notecard. This worked great! I would only put glue on about 6" sections at a time so it wouldn't start to dry before I got the rope around it. I found it easiest to start at the BOTTOM of the leg and work my way up. I would put the tail of the rope about 3" up on the leg, vertically, with the rest of the rope dangling below it (so the cut off end is facing upward). I would hold the end there, then start wrapping from the bottom. Basically the end of the rope is tucked up under the wrap. You don't want this:

because then you have a loose end to be pulled. You want that end tucked under the wrap. I hope that makes sense...

Anyway, pull the rope as TIGHT as you can as you go. After going around the leg 3-5 times, I would also push the rope down. This made it very tight and eliminated any gaps. I made the cat tree in the summer of '09 and the rope is still tight as of now, almost 3 years later.

Ok, so you wind your way up to the top of the leg, as tight as you can and pushing it down so it's tight. Now cut the rope. You'll need to sit there, firmly pressing the loose end against the leg until it dries. Or, get a clamp. I chose to sit there and hold it for about 30 mins each time. Ugh. It takes quite a while to completely dry. If you find that an end didn't stick, just re-glue it. The same thing applies if you're partway up a leg and come to the end of the rope, only in this case what you should do is stick the end of the rope up, vertically, and then start the next piece of rope wrapping around it. Hide those loose ends wherever you can! This also means there won't be any gaps between rope sections.

Here is a finished leg

Now, wrapping the taller legs is just the same. Except those pesky wedges! How do you deal with those?? It's no different, except I found it easier to start at the TOP and wrap downward. Remember to push the rope UP to keep it tight.

First try.. lots of uncovered space on that wedge!

This one, much better. Also see how the end of the rope is wrapped around the leg? That's to help me hold it tight while it dries. Once it was dry I cut it. Again notice the improper use of nails (use screws!!) and also note how the leg is not against the edge of the platform, it's in about an inch and 1/2 or so as the nails going into the bottom leg are against the edge.

Wrapping progress

Last step, carpet!! I got FREE carpet. I lived in an apartment complex and the unit below mine was being re-carpeted. I asked if they had any scraps. I got a huge roll. Flip the carpet UPSIDEDOWN. Measure out the area of your platforms using a tape measure. **Give yourself about 2 inches extra on each side!!!** That way you can wrap it around the edges. I used a Sharpie to draw my lines on the back of the carpet. Carpet has this neat little grid on the back, which makes it easy to make straight cuts. I used a basic box cutter to cut it which worked great.

Now how do we fit it around those pesky wedges?

I cut out the the L-shaped piece of carpet for the bottom platform and fit it on the platform. I used a staple gun to tack it in place over the main area, not getting too close to the wedges yet. When stapling, hold the fibers apart if you can to get the staple all the way down. This held it in position so I could do the cutouts for the wedges. Carpet cuts very easily. It wasn't difficult to cut along the wedges and basically trace them out with the box cutter.

On the middle level, there is that leg from the top platform right smack in the middle. How do we get the carpet around that? You could try to poke out a hole but I chose to make a straight cut up the middle of the carpet to the leg. Again I cut the carpet away from the leg so it fit perfectly. I put several staples along the slice to hold it together. You can't see a seam at all.

Wrap the carpet over the edges and staple on the sides or underneath. You will have to cut little pieces out to wrap the carpet over corners.

Tada!! You're done!

Here is the cat tree as of today, March 31st, 2012. You can see a loose end sticking out on one of the tall legs, and the rope is well scratched, but it's held together beautifully. The rope on the top platform is the extra rope. It's not glued on.

Snake!

I've lived in San Diego for 2 and 1/2 years and today was the first time I saw a snake. The area is known to have rattlesnakes so I've always been cautious.

We were biking to the dog park and right before we arrive there is a sharp 180* turn that is also very steep. I was pedaling hard as usual and the dogs were getting very excited to be at the park. Halfway around the corner I saw a very long snake. I shouted "WOAH!!" and slammed the brakes, barely missing the snake. I have no idea how I stopped in time. The dogs ran right by it without even noticing it, and even once stopped they continued trying to go forward since we were so close to the park. I immediately looked at the tail and was relieved to see the lack of a rattle. Thank goodness for that! I dismounted to snap a couple pics with my cell phone.

Despite having been almost run over, and Denali most definitely stepped over it, it just laid there. I considered for a moment that it may have been dead. After getting a couple pictures I gently pushed my foot against its tail to see if it was alive. It slithered forward a couple inches. Ok, alive. I prodded it again to get it off the trail. Another couple inches. Not working. I kicked a little dirt at it and it bolted into the brush. Live long and prosper, Mister (or Miss) snake!

My feet are women's size 9-10 for reference, so I guess the snake was about 5 feet long. Right behind my leg is my bike which is leaning against the fence, and the snake's nose is less than a foot away from the fence on that side. It's almost the entire width of the path!

After getting home I looked up California snake species I think it's a San Diego gopher snake. If anyone has a better guess let me know!

Click to enlarge
www.californiaherps.com

Click to enlarge
www.californiaherps.com

Pics and Vids of Raw Feeding

I want to give a warning first that there will be graphic images and videos, as that's the whole point of this post. If watching lions eat gazelle on the Discovery channel makes you nauseous you might not want to continue. When first starting raw feeding it was a little odd to just set down a big chunk of meat for my dog to chew on and eat. It's such a drastic difference from dime-sized pieces of dry kibble. It was really good for me to join groups and see images of dogs digging into big chunks of meat and I want to pass that on. The most common things I currently feed are chicken (mainly leg quarters or whole chickens), turkey necks, pork roasts, beef heart, and whole sardines. For organ it's beef or chicken liver and beef kidney. They also get an egg about twice a week. I feed whatever else I can get to add to those staple foods.

To dive right in, one of the most common things I feed is chicken leg quarters. They are cheap and a good source of edible bone.


Here is Denali eating a chunk of llama neck. I fed her an entire half of a llama including half of every organ.

Here is bag of llama stomach, or as my awesome sister-in-law labeled it, Llama Tummy & Poop! Stomach is fed as meat, not organ. This was quite smelly as it has semi-digested grass and hay in it. It smells like manure to be blunt. The dogs loved it. I left it up to them if they wanted to eat the grass and hay or pick it out. They ate it all.

Here is a leg of the llama. Leg bones of large animals are very, very hard and dense and are known to damage or break teeth. Denali was not allowed to gnaw on the bone. She stripped the tendons and the little bit of meat off, ate the foot, then I threw away the bones.

Introduction of beef kidney. Introduce organs in tiny pieces. I was curious if she would eat it or not, but nope! You can tell she is not impressed as her lip is curled up. She would not eat it thawed at first so I cut it into smaller pieces and fed it semi-frozen.

Beef tongue and beef heart frozen together. For my dogs, the portion size for each day is around 14 oz. Almost one pound (16 oz). So when I get something like, say, a beef heart, that is 2.9 lbs (46.4 oz), I cut it into pieces that are about 14 oz each. That gives me 3 meals, plus about an extra 1/3 of a meal. What do I do what that little bit? I put it with other little bits. Feeding it to smaller other pets like cats or ferrets is also an option.

Beef ribs! Feeding on the kitchen floor is not ideal for me. I usually feed on a tarp or outside but we had recently moved and I threw out the old tarp, and outside was not dog proof yet. I also don't like feeding on hard floors because the dogs slip and slide and it's really awkward for them to eat. When they are done I clean the floors so at least I get clean floors out of it! They always make a bloody mess all over their legs when eating ribs so they go straight into the bathtub after eating.

Whole wild bunny. I froze it for a few weeks to kill any parasites then let her eat it. The only part of the entire rabbit that she did not eat was the stomach.

Pork roasts (shoulder, arm, picnic, butt, shoulder blade roast). I often cut them into meal-sized portions but sometimes will let the dogs eat off the whole thing.

Whole chicken. I tried it first with feathers on. Denali plucked hers and spit out the feathers. Kaytu ate the feathers and then threw them up. I decided the mess of both wasn't worth it, so I now skin chickens when I get them whole with feathers. Skinning them is easier, faster, and less messy than plucking. I skin them when they are mostly thawed as it's nearly impossible to skin it while frozen, and when totally thawed it's more slimy and icky.

Video of Denali eating a whole store-bought chicken.


Kaytu eating an egg. She breaks it open by dragging it along the ground with her paw.

When Kaytu was first offered raw chicken her first day with us she didn't want to eat it. One way to help hesitant dogs is to cut the meat into smaller pieces and spread them out a little on a plate, cutting board, baking sheet, or other surface. Here is some cut up chicken, I think from a leg quarter and breast.

**Updated 3/28/2012**

I took a few more pictures last night.

Packages of "Chicken Hearts and Gizzards" have been great for the cats. As noted on the packaging, they are usually mostly gizzards.

However, I noticed there seemed to be a whole lot of hearts in the packages which is why I grabbed them, as I originally wasn't planning on it that shopping trip. I can't resist when meat looks extra good or is on sale.

I find chicken liver in these containers.

Beef kidney.

Inside of a kidney. All the white is normal, it is quite hard.
It's common to have hard white spots on the outer part as well.

Outside of a kidney

**Updated 4/12/2012**
A few more

Pork Tails! I had never seen them so thought I'd give them a try.
They are of course mostly bone, so will be fed when a meaty meal is also fed.

Beef heart

Beef heart inside

Beef heart outside

Beef heart
It is also common for there to be white "stringy" bits of connective tissue. Don't worry, it's not worms or anything bad!

**Updated 5/23/12**

Pork roast, Boston Blade. Also called Boston Butt. It's the shoulderblade and surrounding meat.

Pork arm roast

**Updated 8/7/12**

Whole sardines

*Use of paws optional.