Monday Spark & an Ikea Hack

Last year, before Marv arrived and before Ninja, Kozmo and Jo Jo came to visit, Mom figured she better create a catio. The deck in the townhouse is a great place to spend the days and evenings in the summer. HOWEVER there is a major highway running past the front of the condo.

Cats is escape artists and trying to keep them on the deck could be almost impossible. First she hoped that she could makes one that went over the window. But buying the wood would has been too expensive. Mom was in Ikea and came home with a Hejne shelving unit for the kitchen when her gears in her brain started to churn.

Instead of building the unit for the kitchen, she went back to Ikea and bought 3 smaller shelves. The following Catio cost less than $100 to make!

It was the painting that tooked the longest! The wood really soaked up the paint.

First…she painted the the 4 corner posts and the wide shelves she was going to use for the top and bottom.

After putting on the 3 shelfs…Mom realized she needed a support that went top and bottom in the middle of one of the ends.Off she went to the hardware store for a 1/2″x2″x 8′ board, and then more waiting for paint to dry.

After screwing on the board to support each shelf, Mom stapled on the screening (she bought a sliding door kit).

Here it is (sans cats).

It fits up against the sliding door. Yes there is room for a person to get out when they open the screen wide!

Fast forward to Friday…see the closest bottom corner…? Well Mom kind of did not think carefully about how she put on the screening and that whole side came up tight – she could not wrap it around the corner to staple it and figured that it would hold…WRONG…

Chasing one of the burds, Marv poked his paw through and then Marv pushed and clawed and ripped the screen and made a hole and he went for a walk about on the deck.

Mom caught him jumping up onto the divider between us and the next townhouse. Marv was banished to the inside!

Today, Mommy fixed it!!

Please excuse the dirty deck. Mom fixed the catio instead of scrubbing the deck today. I think that Marv is glad that she did!

Would Mom do anything differently? Well, she would have used a different color of paint. She painted it white to match the townhouse trim, but now she would have painted it brown. She varnished the shelves and they are stained from the mold/mildew that grow during the winter here. It does wash off though. She will get rid of that with vinegar when she scrubs the deck.

Now for my Spark! Marv really, really wanted to walk on the deck and he found a way.

When Mom read this quote by Mark Twain she and I just had to make it the Spark! Mes is walking on air!!!

We don’t know if McGuffy’s will be hosting the Sparks, but mes is going to keeps posting them anyway!  She says “I truly do believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. There is hope. Together, we can light up the entire world!”

Mes AGREES!

Mes is at Awe Mondays at Comedy Plus

Here is my Awww