Moderncat reader Colin from Vancouver sent in photos of this excellent cat climbing tower that he and his father recently designed and built. Discouraged by the unattractive carpet-covered climbers, Colin and his wife decided that they wanted something better for their two cats Yama and Kumo.
Constructed out of pine and finished with an eco-friendly non-toxic stain, the sleek tower has been nicknamed “The Catsle.” Final cost for this elegant structure was $200 Canadian.
As with any piece of cat furniture, there’s always a risk of rejection. Colin writes, “While we were building it, we tried not to think about the fact that the cats might not like it. The big pay off came when my wife and I moved it indoors and the cats instantly jumped onto it and started to play.” Sounds like a success to me!
See more photos and videos of Colin’s Custom Kitty Catsle in his Flickr set.
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:55 am
That is way cool. I may gank this idea…
September 22nd, 2008 at 7:55 am
That is AWESOME. Is there any contact info for the builder?
September 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I wish for a similar one. The Castle must be more fun with two cats.
September 28th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Brilliant, I want a tower like that! And I loved the video! Cute!
September 28th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Thanks so much for the positive feedback. We had a lot of fun building this.
your pal,
Beadle
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
i copied your tower. my big mistake was idinnt make it big enough for our BUDDY. who, by the way adopted us. so i gifted it to our close friend who has a kitten. ” ELIZABETH ” it was a blast to watch her play. it took her a while to navigate the tower,but the laughing we had. so tomorow i will be going to home depot to start again
July 8th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
You can still get one nicer and cheaper from http://www.armarkat.com. They don’t use carpet but this nice, faux fur that’s really short but really soft with sisal rope for clawing. It’s way easy to clean. The tree in the article is nice to look at but the cats can’t do much more than jump up in it. Armarkat trees you have danglies, cubby holes, perches, hammocks and a bunch of other stimulating stuff for less than what they paid to make that simple tree.
July 27th, 2009 at 8:05 am
gosh, work for Armarkat much?
August 28th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
The Armarkat ones are ugly. I love the simple modern design of this one here! I wish I had the plans so I could build one for myself…
October 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Did anybody succesfully get the plans for building this? I want to build one…but am feeling really challenged by designing it myself…THANKS!
November 20th, 2009 at 1:02 am
But, but, but… the tower at Armarkat was THE very reason that Colin built his own! He didn’t want a carpet-covered monstrosity!
February 27th, 2011 at 7:39 am
Inspired by this I made my own version of the KittyCastle. As I wanted it to match the bookshelf I made it out of laminated birch plywood and I also suplied it with a scratch tree to keep those little rascals of the couch and the walls.
As you will see, the cats love their place! http://www.flickr.com/photos/uersugredu/sets/72157626154707596/
March 6th, 2011 at 5:13 pm
CUTE!!!!!!
January 5th, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Here’s my version of the Kitty Castle! Unfortunately I have some limited space, so my castle was not so high. But the cats loved it! Andre Rocha, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
November 26th, 2012 at 10:43 am
There is another good selection of cat castles from Cat Furniture. There are nice cat trees, condos, perches, pagodas and really fun cat playstation.