A Bed for the Cat

A Bed for the Cat

Just like any other member of the family, a cat is entitled to her own space, where she could spend some time alone or simply sleep. For that purpose, Vicky chose a suitcase located on the upper shelf of the wardrobe. It would suit us just fine- had she not had to make her way there through our clothes! Besides, when she hides there, she is all but visible, and to make sure she hasn't disappeared, we have to disturb her inl her rest. Well, this suitcase definitely doesn't seem to be the best sleeping place for the young lady :-)

I had been looking for a better idea for my cat's sleeping place for quite a while. I have even built a multipurpose CATHOUSE - a combination of a sleeping room and an amusement centre. However Vicky seemed to appreciate only its latter function. Besides, she also used it as an unusually big CLAW-SHARPENER. Had I placed the little house under the ceiling and not on the floor, it may have become her favourite sleeping place...As it was I had to come up with yet another idea

To start with, I bought a 2-centimeter-thick sheet of foam-rubber, some fake fur and SYNTHEPON (synthetic winterizer). Foam-rubber is the carcass of the whole structure, so let's deal with it first. It should be mentioned that I had to improvise a lot: all the measurements were approximate, no preliminary drawings had been made, and I had to draw everything right on the foam-rubber itself - with whatever happened to be at hand. The basis of the sleeping room turned out to be almost oval: two intersecting circles with radiusi of 20 centimeters each- and 10 centimeters between the centres. The board should correspond to the length of the oval which equals the length of the circle (R=20 centimeter)+ 20 (twice the distance between the circles). In our case 2х3.1415х20+20=145.66см. My board happened to be 150 centimeters long. The board was 20 centimeter-high, and I made an entrance hole in it, 10 cm deep. A similar hole was made in the roof, which was based on an oval, very much like that of the basis - only this time the circle Rs =30 centimeter. This oval's perimeter was 2х3.1415х30+20=208.49. The distance between the basis of the edifice and the roof turned out to be approximately 60 centimeters. The roof will be convex due to this very size difference. I cut four 15-cm sectors (15x4=60) out of the roof.

The last thing to do was to cover the structure with a cloth.

Since I myself am a lousy tailor, my mother was charged with the task. We have no sewing machine, so the cover had to be sawn by hand. The inner part of the place is covered with the fake fur, the outer - with an almost new but irreversibly ruined satin blanket.

The size of the pillow had to correspond to the outer size of the bottom. To fill the pillow, I used a thick piece of SYNTHEPON folded four times (had it been thin, it should have been folded eight times). To avoid clogging, I pinned SYNTHEPON in several places along the perimeter of the pillow. I started on the pillow a couple of days after the house had already been finished, and the cat had enough time to get used to it. She was extremely excited about the pillow, and I had to fight her off to put the pillow cover on.

When it was finally put into the basket for a try-on, Vicky immediately sneaked in, squinted, folded her paws and pretended to have belonged to the place forever.

The roof was supposed to get connected to the board with a scotch tape but that hasn't happened yet. The cat prefers to sleep without a roof, so I turned it upside down and now it can be used as an alternate basket.

Vicky enjoys spending her nights in her new sleeping room as well as taking a nap in what was supposed to be the roof. For a couple of days she had completely forgotten about her old suitcase.Since then she would jump there from time to time - just for the old times' sake. I will try to help her part with this habit.

My expenses reached a total of 118 NIS (not including the cost of the satin blanket), yet I have used only half of the raw materials. Another sleeping room can easily be made out of the rest

P.S. The currency, mentioned throughout these articles, is Israeli Shekel. According to the current exchange rate, 1$ = approximately 4,5 Israeli Shekels.

P.P.S. For those who h‎ave some spare time and ‎speak foreign languages w‎hich these articles haven't yet been translated to : I would be very grateful if you could do the translations. Besides, if you find errors in the articles, do me a favour by helping me to get rid of them

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