Cattification

Making our space catfriendly came first. When I successfully finished sneaking in my cats one by one into the house, I decided to convert an unused space beside my bedroom to fashion a little cat room. I thank my lucky stars for we had many scraps of wood waiting to be reclaimed and turned into shelves. A secondhand fishing net also helped close off the area and at the same time gave free viewing for both cats and humans.

I also made use of our garden caimito tree trunks as climbing and scratching posts. Any material I could use – an old computer table or bar cart or anything that could mimic a perch -- I continued to add to their room.

We now have hammocks, cat walks, and many ways to access each area. Cats are highly territorial and an abundance of spaces they can claim to their hearts’ desire is the secret to world peace.

I’m lucky that I can have several sections in my area of the house, so that I can segregate the cats as needed. I have four cats that are always with me even as I work, because they prefer a human companion and can't get comfortable inside the cat room no matter how hard I try. I have office space that also doubles as an isolation space where I set up a recovery area (usually a big crate) for when a cat gets sick.