Mika Needs Your Help!!!

sooz123

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
630
Purraise
1
About a month ago we bought Mika one of the floor-to-ceiling cat trees from WalMart. It's fairly plain with three swivel platforms. He loves the thing, just LOVES it! Unfortunately, and actually predictably, it was made cheaply with a thick cardboard tube.

See, Mika is pretty hard on the thing. He runs and jumps on it and throws his weight around while he's on it... I think he thinks he's tarzan. It shimmies and shakes and sounds like he's going to bring the ceiling down! We already had to brace the second shelf with brackets attaching it to the walls (it's in a corner), but now he's broken off the top plunger thing that holds it in place against the ceiling.

My question is, does anyone know of a good quality tree that will suit this little tazmanian devil? I don't think he could use a free standing one, he'll just topple it right over... especially since he's no where near growing yet and could likely double his weight and pull it through the wall
Would we be better off crafting one from scratch out of PVC?
 

pat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 1, 2003
Messages
11,045
Purraise
58
Location
Pacific NW
We have a heavy one from the Catman in WA state - though when I just went to find his website, I learned in an article that he sold the biz and the new ones aren't as available, plus may not be as good.

It is very sturdy, ours is over 5 years old and it holds bounding leaping 13+ lbs. Denebola and his brother Roo...nary a tip. It's trick, solid construction, very wide base - it has a large square sleeping area on top, one full tunnel and two half circle shelves, then the base, the support beams are covered in sisal rope, the rest by carpet.

Anyhoo...a brand I've heard good things about, located in Oregon is Green Duck...some places on the net have good prices, and some of their pieces are natural wood and sound very, very sturdy.
 

kathryn41

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Messages
756
Purraise
4
Location
Stockbridge, Georgia
The largest tree we have is the Grizabella Staircase tree - here is a link to its building plans http://www.cattreeplans.com/ although we purchased ours ready made. We have five cats - three of whom are bigger Maine Coon types - who race up and down it and leap from the top of it and play with each other all around it. It has never toppled or fallen or shown any type of weakness in spite of being well and heavily used daily for a year now. I have wrapped sisal around the two long side posts that brace it on the ground and the cats enjoy the long stretch to sharpen their claws - and then to climb up that side to one of the perches. I can highly recommend this design as stable, strong and cat-friendly. It doesn't go to the roof, though, and that is the one thing I would change if I could - still it provides a lot of space and all five cats can use it at the same time.

Kathryn
 

scamperfarms

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 23, 2004
Messages
7,299
Purraise
2
Location
Minnesota
I know rose hawk is making one. and I have looked into making our own too..I have also looked on ebay and found some of a good quality for not bad pricing. I have seen the brands in person and find them sturdy. Good luck!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

sooz123

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
630
Purraise
1
Originally Posted by maverick_kitten

not so much a cat tree as a way of life...

http://www.pix.tv/html/cathouse/ch_01.htm
LOL... I've seen that on TV... I don't think so!


Thanks for the suggestions, all! Has anyone ever used this brand Drs. Foster & Smith ?

That one looks really cool but I'd hardly pay $500 for a cat tree. I've been pondering doing a fundable.org thing (go check that out, it's pretty cool, you start an "auction" sort of like ebay... say to get Mika's $500, set it that I need 40 people to donate $12.50 each, and if I don't get enough by the time it's over everyone gets their money back) just for fun to see if we could collect enough to buy one of those monsters for our little monster!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

sooz123

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
630
Purraise
1
Well, I did it! I'm interested to see if this thing will actually work, anyway. I've been trying to figure out an idea for testing it out. It's such a cool idea, I'm sure it'll become as big as Ebay some day. So, if you'd like to donate $12.50 to Mika's new cat tree, just go HERE !!!


He'll be much obliged, very very thankful, and very very happy!
 

pat

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 1, 2003
Messages
11,045
Purraise
58
Location
Pacific NW
I have a small Foster's and Smith piece, and while it was decent, it is NOT holding up well...the real wood support has cracked down the middle, and the carpet is fraying way too soon. It's not a tree to buy to expect long term use from, though if one had just one or two cats and they were sedate
maybe it would last quite a long time.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

sooz123

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
630
Purraise
1
OH NO! LOL, I guess if we manage to get all that money, which I seriously doubt, we'll use it to buy supplies to make one ourselves! Carpet over steel should be durable enough for our little monster
 

fwan

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Messages
13,279
Purraise
2
Location
Australia
sounds like we bought the same cat tree from walmart, teufel knocked it over, its not fully broken but since he knocked it over he wont use it anymore..
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #12

sooz123

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Mar 24, 2005
Messages
630
Purraise
1
LOL! You should see what we had to do to ours to get it to remain standing during his abuse! It's in a corner, with the center shelf nestled in the corner and bolted to both walls with brackets. Then when he broke the top part we bought PVC pipe hanger things, and that's around the post at the top shelf extended to the wall and bolted (so the top shelf could remain positioned out the other way). It looks, well, stupid!

Yep, we only have 2 contributers so far, but I'm not real hopeful that we'll get the donations necessary to get him a really nice tree. We have 1 month to find people though. I did decide that if I couldn't find a real nice floor-to-ceiling one that was sturdy enough for him that we'd use the money for supplies to build one of our own that we know would stand up to his abuse!

Don't forget
if you've got an extra $12.50 laying around in your paypal account, Mika would sure be appreciative! http://www.fundable.org/groupactions/mika
 
Top