So, a couple of my kitties like to scale the counter top, hop up on to the refrigerator, and finally, to the top of the cupboards, close to the ceiling. Sasha even sleeps there on occasion.
I was thinking of creating catwalks (teehee) between all of the cupboards, so basically they have a continuous square "halo" to walk around on, probably consisting of a ladder of some sort to scale down the other side, so there's more than one entrance/exit. I'm in an apartment, so it's probably easy to visualize the kitchen - enclosed on 3 sides, so basically there's sets of cupboards facing one another, and one bare wall. There'd be one long catwalk on the bare wall (at one cupboard end), and one parallel to it at the other end, at the entrance to the kitchen.
Anyhow, the cupboards are probably 12" - 14" wide, whatever the standard size is. My dilemma is one born out of fear - my kitties are front-declawed, and even if I carpet the entire area up there, I fear someone falling, either by accident, or by way of a catfight erupting up there.
The whole thing could be done cheaply, and I know they'd enjoy it, but is the risk real enough to disregard the project? Perhaps add a "guardrail"? Am I a worry-wart? I saw someone's house on the internet once that had holes in the walls and elevated catwalks all through the house, but I didn't know if the cats had their claws.
Thanks for any advice.
I was thinking of creating catwalks (teehee) between all of the cupboards, so basically they have a continuous square "halo" to walk around on, probably consisting of a ladder of some sort to scale down the other side, so there's more than one entrance/exit. I'm in an apartment, so it's probably easy to visualize the kitchen - enclosed on 3 sides, so basically there's sets of cupboards facing one another, and one bare wall. There'd be one long catwalk on the bare wall (at one cupboard end), and one parallel to it at the other end, at the entrance to the kitchen.
Anyhow, the cupboards are probably 12" - 14" wide, whatever the standard size is. My dilemma is one born out of fear - my kitties are front-declawed, and even if I carpet the entire area up there, I fear someone falling, either by accident, or by way of a catfight erupting up there.
The whole thing could be done cheaply, and I know they'd enjoy it, but is the risk real enough to disregard the project? Perhaps add a "guardrail"? Am I a worry-wart? I saw someone's house on the internet once that had holes in the walls and elevated catwalks all through the house, but I didn't know if the cats had their claws.
Thanks for any advice.
