Cats in the Alcove – Part 7
Cats in the Alcove – Part 7

Cats in the Alcove – Part 7

Over the course of the past month, I’ve been building a series of shelves and platforms designed to get Birdie & Darwin into the alcove above our TV.  I thought I was done.  Both Birdie & Darwin LOVE the alcove and are always up there, sometimes together [if you zoom in on the 2nd pic you can see Darwin’s great big smile!]:

darwin and birdie in the living room alcove        122g

And we see a lot of Birdie’s feet:

birdie in the living room alcove, you can only see her feet        122q

But not poor Bonkers.  As Jackson Galaxy would say, Bonkers is a bush dweller, not a tree dweller.  The floor is his domain.  Bonkers [full name General Bonkers] is a mess.  We adopted him from the shelter in 2012.  Like Hubby says, it’s like someone took a box of defective cat parts and Frankenstiened the poor thing together.  He’s missing a fang.  His fur is always a mess [greasy, scabby, and/or matted in clumps, no matter how much we brush him].  His hip joints are loose [the vet said it’s nothing to worry about and causes him no pain] so when he walks he often wobbles and sometimes falls over.

bonkers rubbing his face on the stairs, with fang

When he tries to jump on the couch he often chest-checks himself and gets bounced back to the floor.  But he’s sooooooo loveable!  Every night when I climb into bed he jumps up [our bedframe has a wide, wooden ledge around it, making it easier for him to launch himself up] and sits on my chest while I pat him.  He purrs and kneads and sometimes even drools.  It’s wonderful!  When he’s really happy he lays on his back with all his feet in the air:

122e        122f

The most endearing thing he does is sit on his hind legs and beg when he wants attention or food:

122d        bonkers begging in the bedroom

It’s so hard to get a picture of him doing it!  Please excuse the mess… Gawd…

It’s obvious to me he feels very left out regarding the cat platforms.  And apparently, unbeknownst to us, he’s been secretly plotting ways to get up onto them.  It would be an absolute disaster if Birdie jumped up onto one of her platforms and found Bonkers waiting for her – we’re afraid she’d go into permanent hiding!

Three weeks ago I came out of the downstairs bathroom to this sight:

122h

That’s Bonkers sitting – very proud of himself – on Birdie’s downstairs hall platform.  I muttered a long string of obscenities and put him back on the floor.  A week later I came into the living room to this sight:

122i

Gah!  There he goes again, on his way to Birdie’s side of the platform.

NOT GOOD!!!

He’d learned [OMG] how to jump up onto the new cat tree in the living room!  Which was right next to the TV platform:

109g

Jim suggested moving the cat tree over in front of the window, to keep Bonkers from reaching the TV platform.  Which was an awesome suggestion!  But meant I had to quickly cut, prime, paint and hang a new shelf to allow Darwin and Birdie access to the alcove, which was now further away from the cat tree:

122j        122k

I didn’t have any more red brackets so I used black ones.  We kind of like the look of the different colors.  Darwin quickly got used to having to traverse 2 platforms to get from the cat tree to the alcove:

122l

And Birdie decided the new platform was a great place to check out the goings on outside!  I moved the curtain for her so she could see better.  She liked that quite a lot:

122m        122n

Then last week I came into the living room and witnessed Bonkers jumping from the lower platform of the cat tree up into the middle house.  GAH!!!   This is getting out of hand!

122a

Now all three cats take naps in the cat tree house!  Maybe it’s good…  Jim thinks shared nap spots are a good way for the cats to get used to each other’s scents.  I don’t know… as long as Bonkers doesn’t decide to keep going and get himself into the alcove, I’m OK with it!!!

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3 Comments

  1. I swore I commented on this post, but I guess I just answered in my head. Were you able to read my thoughts? If not I will rewrite my comment below, but seriously, you should work on your ESP.

    I don’t think that you should worry too much about Bonkers making it up to the ledge. The cats will figure things out. Birdie already has a lot more confidence, and I am sure that she will be able to take care of Bonkers up there because he will be out of his element. It will be very different than it is on the ground where he feels secure and able to bully her.

    1. Nine Dark Moons

      Jessica that’s totally true! I hadn’t thought of it that way before. But yes, if Bonkers ever did manage to get himself up into the alcove, he’d be completely out of his element! Birdie’s confidence seems to grow by the week – it’s awesome! And yes, I will work on my ESP LOL!

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