Upstairs Cat Platforms – Part 8

Birdie, despite being super sweet, very opinionated, and a good girl all around, is a disaster in the litter box.  She has 2 elevated boxes, one in the laundry room:

And one in the upstairs hallway.  The upstairs hall litter box has gone through many iterations.  It began with a small pink “dainty” litter box:

Which was too small.  I then extended her platform to the corner and set up a slightly bigger blue litter box, held down by bungee cords [a catastrophic event the first night made it clear bungee cords were necessary!]:

But Birdie started missing the box and depositing her “gifts” on the shelf, sometimes half in and half out of the box.  And even worse, peeing all over the shelf and floor.  We saw her a few times trying to do her business in the box, but she had backed up too far and her furry little muppet butt was hanging over the edge sigh.  We decided it was more an issue of box size vs. bad intentions.  Puppy pads helped for a few months, but over the last few weeks I’ve been replacing pee-soaked puppy pads almost daily.  ENOUGH!  So I decided to create the litter box enclosure I’ve been planning in my head for over a year, which is designed to enclose a much larger litter box.  Think “the size of a small boat” sized litter box.

On Sunday I cut 2 pieces of ¾” plywood [my material of choice for cat related construction], then primed and painted them:

The thin piece [5″ x 2′] is for adding horizontal width to the existing upstairs hall cat platform [since the new box is so much bigger].  The larger piece is for a privacy screen.  The privacy screen isn’t a necessity but I’ve always thought it would look nice to walk upstairs facing a cat painting on a wooden panel versus a litter box.  Turns out I measured crappily and had to cut a wider thin piece [6½” x 2′]:

       

I love my table saw, Ted S.!  Once that was primed and painted to match the privacy screen, and I triple checked it would all fit together like I thought it would, I painted the privacy screen.  I sketched my design first on paper, then sketched it again onto the board, filling in the black parts and adding words:

      

Hubby said “You should have written “Purrrivacy Please!” and of course he is right, but I didn’t feel like redoing it.  Then I mixed up some pink hues for the scarf:

        

To attach the thinner piece to the existing platform I used flat brackets from Home Depot – 2 on top, one on the bottom:

        

The new, large litter box sits perfectly on the newly widened platform:

Then I used more metal brackets to attach the privacy screen to both the platform and the wall:

Added a puppy pad [just in case], and we’re in business:

      

I re-arranged the art on the walls to fit better with the new setup:

        

I think it looks great for what it is!  Birdie’s not too sure though… as of last night she still hadn’t used the new box.  But today after work there was a “gift” waiting for us, so I’d say it’s a success!

I ended up removing the litter box platform after Bonkers passed. Birdie stopped needing it and using it, since she could now safely go in the boxes on the floor. She now uses 2 boxes on the girl cave flood.