Making Cat Condos

Cats bring love to your home, but they bring destruction to your furniture. Cat claws rip, shred and unravel expensive upholstery on your sofas and chairs. Cats need a place to scratch and stretch out to remain physically healthy. Save your furniture the trouble of becoming that place by providing your cat with a condo of his own. This condo will be your cat's favorite place to hide, nap and, of course, exercise those claws.

Things You'll Need

  • 12-inch diameter cardboard concrete form
  • Jigsaw or utility knife
  • 4 1x1-inch pieces of wood
  • Hammer and nails
  • 12-inch diameter plywood round
  • Wood glue
  • Carpet remnants
  • 12-inch square of plywood
  • 24-inch square of plywood
  • Sisal rope
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place the cardboard concrete form vertically so that one end rests on the floor and the other is in the air. (See Reference 1 for each step of this article.)

    • 2

      Use a jigsaw or utility knife to cut a 12-inch hole in the form near the bottom. Cut another 12-inch hole halfway up the form.

    • 3

      Place one of the 1x1-inch pieces of wood into the form just under the hole you cut halfway up. Nail the wood in by driving a nail into it from the outside of the form. Repeat this procedure with the other pieces of wood, nailing one directly across the tube from the first, then nailing the others on either side, across from one another.

    • 4

      Slide the 12-inch plywood round into the tube from the top, letting it rest on the four small pieces of wood you just nailed into the tube. The plywood should make a shelf just inside the hole you cut in the tube.

    • 5

      Cut a 12-inch diameter round of the carpet remnant. Apply wood glue to the shelf you just placed inside the tube. Sit the carpet round on the shelf and press it down.

    • 6

      Cover the plywood squares with carpet remnants. Secure the carpet to the squares with wood glue, nails or both.

    • 7

      Nail the 12-inch square to the top of the concrete form by placing it on top of the form and nailing through the square into the form.

    • 8

      Flip the form over so that it is standing on the top (it's OK if your shelf slides up, simply make sure that it is back on its brackets when you turn the form right side up again). Nail the 24-inch square to the form by placing the square onto the form and nailing through the square into the form.

    • 9

      Turn the form right side up again. Secure an end of sisal rope to the base of the tube with wood glue, then wrap the tube in sisal rope. When you come to an area of the tube with a hole cut out, do not wrap the area. Instead, secure a new piece of sisal rope just above the hole and begin wrapping again. When you finish wrapping a section, secure the end with wood glue.

    • 10

      Cover the areas of the tube not covered by sisal rope with carpet remnants secured with wood glue, nails or both. Allow all glue to dry overnight before allowing cats to play on their new condo.