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We took a short break up to Hervey Bay to whale watch and do a bit of coastal strolling and we had absolutely perfect weather the entire time – cold, but bright and dry. The apartment we rented was less than optimal but that was the only issue. We took our new (secondhand) Hyundai Kona 2022 EV and it was a dream to drive. It helped that Hervey Bay has a terrific charging high speed station with four bays at one of its shopping centres – it’s unusual in that because Queensland is struggling to keep up with demand on charging.

Continue reading “Hervey Bay July 2024”

Late last year we built a cat walk on the front of the house, and had cat doors installed for it and the catio at the other end of the house. Shula loves the catio, but the cat walk (really, just a 1.8m long, low cage in front of the window), never really interested her that much.

I saw this IKEA hack to turn a very large Kallax bookshelf into a cat tree, and thought we could try something like that. I later thought that if we put it in front of the cat door to the cat walk, it might encourage her to use it. But all I really wanted in the first instance was to give her some enrichment, and another thing to play with and look around.

I drew up a plan and Doug made it. It’s been ludicrously successful. Shula was all over it during the construction, and as soon as it was in place, was keen to explore all the possibilities. Best of all, she now goes in and out of the cat walk quite happily, whether we’re out in that room or not.

This is the plan I created:

There are multiple ways for her to get to the cat door, and there’s a shelf across the window behind the unit that lets her walk along it from the first level from either cubicle. The steps thing in front of the unit which you can see at the bottom of the photos was what Doug built for her to access the cat walk originally. She doesn’t need it, but it’s covered with mats she can use to scratch on. We put similar mats on one side of the top shelf, and a little way down the side (you can just see them in one of the photos), which she can use for scratching if she’s on the top, or on the cat tree next to this unit.

It was surprisingly easy to make with a jigsaw to make the holes – the thick top shelf is basically just melamine-covered cardboard, and Doug says he wishes it’s known that, because he would have used a Stanley/craft knife to make that one hole. (The other shelves are melamine covered chipboard, so you need a saw.)

You don’t have to have a cat door to the outside for this to be fun for your kitty.

[She came with that name, by the way ETA: And we’ve changed it to Shula]

She’s a four-year-old rescue cat and has one overriding desire in life – to be the centre of all attention and love from her humans. This, of course, is just horrible for us 🙂

Doug spent 27 years telling me he didn’t want an indoor cat, didn’t want a cat who slept on our bed, didn’t want the fuss etc.

I predicted this would be the result when we got one 🙂

She 

She is beautiful, a real melanic cat with black beans and whiskers and pigmented skin. She’s also been amazingly quick to settle in – none of this “keep her in one small room until she settles in” crap for her! She used the litter tray, played with the cat tree, ate and drank normally, and slept on our bed, as if she had lived her for years instead of a handful of hours. Doug swears she must have Siamese in her. She’s not very vocal though, just has the tiniest little mew. We are keeping her in the large heated sunroom which adjoins our bedroom, so she can be shut out there when she’s being a bit in the way. Much more room than she had at the shelter!

I can’t believe she was there for 2 months. I was in love from the minute we met her, although it wasn’t until we held her, and then the other one I was having trouble choosing between, that we picked her. The other one, who was also a gorgeous, friendly black kitty, just didn’t like being held that day, so Misty won on charm.

This is the first and last cat post from me. However, I need to post the photos from our trip to New Caledonia once I don’t have new cat brain 🙂