March Is Build the Best Little Cat Tree in Town Month!

March Is Build the Best Little Cat Tree in Town Month!
Originally uploaded by rikkis_refuge.

Use your imagination to build the Best Little Cat Tree in Town for either the 9th Life Retirement, Assisted Living and Psychiatric Center cats or the cats in the Cat Houses of Feline Fields. Indoors, we have finally given up trying to fight the cats. Cats like Meg, who know how to open file cabinets. Cats like Vincent, who loves to shred boxes. Cats like Timmy, who look to spill coffee on computers. Cats like Gertrude, who shred rolls of paper towels and toilet paper. Cats like Mariah, who can't help but when she drips diarrhea about. Cats like Bucky, who prefer to eject their hairballs from the highest possible location. Cats like Francesca, who think anything plastic must be a litterbox. Cats like Shadow, just as soon pee on a door as walk through one. Cats like Neka, who eat more paper than the goats do. Cats like Quincy, who drool on everything. And the list goes on.

Cages are going up to protect the human type supplies. The office things, the paperwork, the medications, all the things that enjoy life much better not covered in cat puke or worse will be hidden behind wire. Every room is being rearranged. The human furniture is all being disposed of. Every room has had couches, with covers that need washing every day.

From now on it's going to be cat friendly or to the dump!!!! There are a few requirements for building the Best Little Cat Tree in Town. Some human requirements. It must be easy for humans to move to clean around and under it (unless it's a structure permanently attached to the walls of the cat runs). It must be relatively easy to clean. For example the average lifespan of a couch in the 9th Life Retirement, Assisted Living and Psychiatric Center is 12 days. It must not have hidey holes that make it any more difficult to extract feral cats attempting to avoid their medication. No Moray Eel traps, where one would stick in their hands and be horribly bitten, before they even knew there was a feral hiding in there.

And there are some cat requirements. It must be fun to climb and sleep on. No dangerous surfaces, nails sticking out, or anything they can get hurt on, or stuck in. It must be stable, so it will not fall over and hurt them. No parts that can be chewed off and swallowed.

Design your Cat Tree, build your prototypes, test it on your cats, tweak out the mistakes, rebuild your Cat Tree, and when it finally is really and truly the Best Little Cat Tree in Town, bring it down to Rikki's Refuge for our cats to try out. The humans and the cats will collaborate together to pick the best cat tree of all. Be sure your tree is here and in place before the March 31st tour (it's at one o'clock). Visitors on the tour will get a chance to vote for the Best Little Cat Tree in Town.

All cat trees will be shown on line and the builder of the Best Little Cat Tree in Town - will win, what else, a cat! Well, how about a Rikki’s sweatshirt - in the size and color of your choice!

Get your hammers and saws out and get to building! Don't miss the next tour, where you can see all the competitors designs. Rikki's Refuge No Kill Animal Sanctuary, www.RikkisRefuge.org - Next tour March 31, 2007 1 PM, RSVP 540-854-0870 x2 or mail@RikkisRefuge.org