The cats' tree house.

With Mickey and Sweet Pea in mind, we drove into College Station today to look at those carpeted 'tree houses' made for indoor cats.  I had seen one at our neighbor's house over the weekend.... she swore that her cat loved it, and if I were a cat, I could understand the attraction. Poles to climb, baskets to nap in, places to hide.... and everything covered in soft carpeting.

I had looked at some on the Internet that looked interesting (and offered free shipping), but the buyer-feedback on a lot of those said that they weren't sturdy enough for adult cats but would be fine for kittens.  We don't have kittens, and (as I keep saying) we don't want another cat (or kitten).

PetCo and PetsMart.... they both had the carpeted tree houses.  PetsMart had the best selection, plus they were on floor-level display shelves so you could see how they were made.  The ones in PetCo were up top on high shelves and you could barely see the price, let alone the construction.  Back to PetsMart we went, and my husband thought the tallest one with the most levels would be the best bet.

"And what will we do with this thing if the cats don't like it?"  I'll save the receipt and we'll just bring it back.    "And what will we do with it when we no longer have Mickey and Sweet Pea, because we don't want to get any more cats, you know."   We can sell this one on Craig'sList.   The PetsMart guy carried it to the register, then carried it out to our car.  Of course, the tree house didn't fit into the trunk.  And it was too long to lay across the back seat, even though we have a full-size car. 

When I suggested that we just bring this large tree house back into the store and exchange it for one of the smaller ones, the PetsMart guy got creative..... he turned it upside down, put the top end on the floor in front of the passenger seat, put that seat all the way back into the 'recline' setting, and managed to get that "Cat Yard" tree house into the car while asking me if I would mind sitting in the back seat for the drive home.  As we drove back from College Station, my husband said it was like that movie "Driving Miss Daisy."

We pulled into our driveway and J&J up the road were on the way home with their new toy (a brand-spanking-new riding lawn mower--- they don't have cats, so their toys are much different than ours).  My husband recruited J to help him get the tree house out of the car and into the house, which probably saved at least two of my fingernails.  (Never getting on a riding lawn mower will save the other eight nails.)

I put the cats into 'their' bathroom while I got out the vacuum and ran it over the carpeting in the TV room (which is more "the cats' room" than our TV room these days.  While the cats were behind the closed door of the bathroom, I set up the tree house in front of the windows, along with their other cat-sized furniture.  Surely, any indoor cat would just love to explore the little wicker house, the wicker table, and now (the star attraction in the center) a carpeted tree house that put a $150 dent on my credit card.

My husband and I stood in the TV room watching as the cats explored their surprise. Mickey was the first one to jump onto the second-level, Sweet Pea climbed to the third level, and when I put Mickey up into the very top sleeping-basket, Sweet Pea tried to get him out of there with a couple of paw-swipes on Mickey's nose.  Mickey didn't budge.... he was six feet from the floor and looking out of the top half of the windows.  Now the cats have a room with a view.

The book I'm reading now is by Julia Child--- "My Life in France."  The French have a saying about their beloved cats (who freely roam around the inside of village restaurants)..... "A house without a cat is like a life without sunshine."  So say the French.  I will have to remember that the next time either Mickey or Sweet Pea do something so thoroughly stupid, so thoroughly un-cat-like, something that makes us go out to buy a $150 conglomeration of wood and PVC pipe and carpeting that probably cost about $35 to make.