One day several years ago I was sitting watching my cat Simon frisk around in the sunlight coming through the window and I was suddenly struck by what turned out to be a wonderful inspiration.
It occurred to me that I could take a bunch of cardboard boxes and build Simon a sort of “cat castle” by taping them together with masking tape and cutting little doors in them. The idea was to cut the doors in places so that they would match up with each other when I taped the boxes together. That way, Simon would have a sort of dollhouse with multiple rooms that he could explore and run through. And since it was just cardboard boxes, he would be free to claw the hell out of it to his heart’s content.
Naturally, I got enthusiastic and overdid it a little and the castle ended up being three levels high and had more than a dozen “rooms” in it. When I was done, I went and got him from where he was napping and put him down in front of the castle entrance. Instant fascination! He cautiously stuck his nose in the door and meowed in a loud, unusual way, then went inside. I didn’t see him again for an hour! He was all over the thing, up and down and around and around, going faster and faster until the whole structure was quivering.
Occasionally he would stick his head out the “windows” I had cut for him and he would look at me and meow real loud as though to say “Hey, look at what I’m doing!” and then immediately he’d go back to ramming around in the castle.
The castle was an enormous success; Simon spent far more time with it than he had ever spent with any other toy he ever had. And all it cost me was a roll of masking tape! Talk about a bargain…
It was only after several weeks that Simon started to lose his constant fascination with his castle, and then I had another wonderful inspiration. I realized that I could add another whole dimension to it for him by putting “scent bags” all through his castle. Since cats are so fascinated by anything that has an odor, it occurred to me to create these “scent bags” by using fine stainless steel mesh folded up like an envelope and containing various things that had a smell to them, mostly food items. Because the things were enclosed in stainless steel wire mesh, Simon couldn’t actually get at them and so they stayed in place until I removed them and changed their contents after a day or so. I kept him from carrying them off by fastening them to the sides of the cardboard boxes.
This was another huge success! The first time Simon went back in his castle after I installed a dozen or so scent bags, he kept meowing and meowing and exploring his castle all over again. He just loved it. Once again, he would roam his castle by the hour, having the time of his life. I got into the habit of switching the locations of the scent bags once he got tired and took a nap. That way, when he went back in the castle again, he was amazed to discover all the familiar scents were in new places! And once again he had to roam all over and refamiliarize himself with everything.
Simon’s castle lasted for several months until he finally managed to beat it half to death, with all the tape joins becoming frayed and all the boxes becoming tattered. He finally got tired of it and I threw it out. But every couple years or so since then I build him another castle and he loves it all over again. I hope you will be inspired to build your kitties their very own castle: all it takes is a little masking tape and a few hours of time and your cat will have more fun with it than you can believe. Try it!
