Build him a house and he will come.
It started out as an entry in a contest, but quickly became much more when I had a hard time getting my cat Pepper to relinquish the cardboard structure to me every day. I had entered a contest to build a cat house made of cardboard. You could use fabric, other forms of paper and some plastic (Not more than 20% of the entire structure.) The glue, fabric, paper, markers, paints...anything used to construct the cat house had to be none toxic.
I'm no architect, but for five thousand dollars I decided to compete. I didn't win, but I did place within the top twenty out of the two hundred plus entries for cardboard cat houses. For that, I received cat food coupons. Hey, it's better than nothing.
At the time, Pepper was only a year old and it was obvious he was going to be a large cat. With him in mind, I made all the rooms in the cardboard cat house as big as I could so he had room to grow. Most of the time Pepper was in the room keeping vigil as I worked. He talks a lot so I imagined him telling me to move that box a little more to the left. Make it higher. I hate that fabric!
Pepper is smart. I teach him a new word or two every day. He understands the words ball, catch, go get, brush (brush-brush), eat, no, sit, treat, here and outside. I teach him words the way you would a child. I either show him the object and repeat the name over and over, every chance I get, or if it's an action, then I repeat that. It's not instantaneous, but he does grasp onto the words and their meaning fairly quickly. I shouldn't have taught him house and mine until AFTER I had finished the cat house.
Half way through the project, Pepper grabbed up his favorite little white teddy bear, trotted into the cardboard house, and made himself at home. From then on, the challenge was to get him out every morning so I could work on the cardboard house. The only enticements that lured him out of his new home were treats and brushing him down or "brush-brush" as we call it.
Eventually, the project was completed. Could it have been better. Yes. But Pepper loves his five room house so that's all that matters. I intend to build a smaller house for my office so he has somewhere comfortable to hang out while I'm working or reading. At least he's big enough now he has stopped lying all over my laptop. Now we fight over who gets to sit in my chair. As you can surmise. I get an earful when I move him, even though he has his own chair. Don't say it. I hear it all the time. He's the king and I the lowly servant.
We were given a budget for building the cardboard cat house of $100. The glue consumed most of the budget. It cost $7 a canister. I used boxes I had stored in the garage after I moved so I had zero expense there and all the fabric trim were the free sample pieces I picked up for from Home Depot and Lowes. When I walked up to the register with my bounty I received some strange looks until I explained about the cardboard cat house contest. After the explanation, everyone was so helpful and some even gave me pointers. Thank you everyone!!!
The flowers along the bottom were made from construction paper I picked up at a local dollar store and the self-groomer cost $5 at Petco.
Larger pieces of carpet cover the floor of every room. There are five rooms. Those were cheap as well. I bought remnant pieces for $2 each at the local dollar store.
The paint was free as well. I picked it up and the towns chemical drop-off site. There you can find all kinds of paints and adhesives at no cost. I just asked for non-toxic paints and surprisingly there were quite a few to chose from. The color is supposed to be purpling dawn. It came out more like a light mauve or pink.
The last item I had to purchase was the most important. A small tub of Elmer"s glue. After I had the boxes cut out, but before I started pasting them together, I brushed down all the surfaces of the boxes with a mixture of the Elmer's glue and water. You brush it on and making sure that the surface is slightly damp. When it dries, the cardboard a lot stiffer and a little more durable. So far it has even withstood Pepper's claws.
The only thing left for me to do to make the cardboard cat house a happy home for my cat are to add some cushions to the top of the towers and make add some curtains to the room he sleeps in. For now I've just thrown a blanket over that section to keep out the light.
I'm trying to muster up the energy to start of house number two now. Maybe this time my cat will leave me to work in peace. Wishful thinking on my part I know.
Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab
