beppington
Elite Member
(Post inspired by Huskerplowboy's "Dog Mahal" post)
Hope all you rough/tough tractor owners can forgive the fact that cats, not dogs, are the subject of this project
For a number of years we had our 3 cats indoors-only, including of course their litter boxes. It always bothered me that they could only stare out the windows at mother nature. Once in a while we'd bring them some grass from outside & they'd go NUTS eating it. No idea why, but they did. So:
Phase 1 (I did not know there would more phases when I was doing Phase 1!!!) I made an 8'x8'x3'H chicken wire cage, installed a cat door in the house wall, made a ~5'-long tunnel on the ground to get them to the cage, & wah-lah, at least they could go outside & catch a few bugs & eat some grass any time they wanted.
Phase 2 I extended the tunnel to 8' long, raised up off the ground to let their feet get a little cleaner before coming back in, & replaced the small 8'x8'x3'H cage with a large 40'Lx5'Wx4'H cage with an 8'H pod at the end, wrapped around a tree they can climb, & with shelves so they can get way up off the ground if they want. Man they love it! They go in & out several times every single day!
Phase 3 Most cat people should know about how dusty cat litter can be. And, the litter boxes take up room in your house. Our house isn't very big to start with. So ... I realized I could add a tunnel detour to their existing tunnel ... & I made a cat "out-house" for their little boxes. Now, they go outside the house to their out-house, & all the dust & any odor stays totally outside. The out-house is also up off the ground, & with a wire-mesh floor any cat litter dragged outside the actual boxes falls thru to the ground. We wondered if the litter being in an un-sealed box like this would clump, but it doesn't, not one bit.
(Pic before out-house installed; but proof our cats use the cage!)
Hope all you rough/tough tractor owners can forgive the fact that cats, not dogs, are the subject of this project
For a number of years we had our 3 cats indoors-only, including of course their litter boxes. It always bothered me that they could only stare out the windows at mother nature. Once in a while we'd bring them some grass from outside & they'd go NUTS eating it. No idea why, but they did. So:
Phase 1 (I did not know there would more phases when I was doing Phase 1!!!) I made an 8'x8'x3'H chicken wire cage, installed a cat door in the house wall, made a ~5'-long tunnel on the ground to get them to the cage, & wah-lah, at least they could go outside & catch a few bugs & eat some grass any time they wanted.
Phase 2 I extended the tunnel to 8' long, raised up off the ground to let their feet get a little cleaner before coming back in, & replaced the small 8'x8'x3'H cage with a large 40'Lx5'Wx4'H cage with an 8'H pod at the end, wrapped around a tree they can climb, & with shelves so they can get way up off the ground if they want. Man they love it! They go in & out several times every single day!
Phase 3 Most cat people should know about how dusty cat litter can be. And, the litter boxes take up room in your house. Our house isn't very big to start with. So ... I realized I could add a tunnel detour to their existing tunnel ... & I made a cat "out-house" for their little boxes. Now, they go outside the house to their out-house, & all the dust & any odor stays totally outside. The out-house is also up off the ground, & with a wire-mesh floor any cat litter dragged outside the actual boxes falls thru to the ground. We wondered if the litter being in an un-sealed box like this would clump, but it doesn't, not one bit.
(Pic before out-house installed; but proof our cats use the cage!
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