Our New Fortress! (August 29, 2008)

Since the playground opened in mid-July, the basement window leading to it has always been open. Cats have always been able to go to the playground whenever they wanted, day or night.

Until today. When, to the amazement of the cats, the window to the playground was CLOSED!

Even worse, the cats heard sawing and hammering. For hours and hours.

FINALLY, the playground re-opened. The cats bounded through their basement window to find -- A FORTRESS!


Cats set to work exploring. They soon saw that the Fortress serves as a massive entrance to their basement window, and that it will provide shelter in bad weather. On the first landing, there is plenty of room to relax or play. A ramp leads from the landing down to the ground. Or, cats can jump from the landing, to higher shelves within the fortress.

From the top of the fortress, which has a peak so that snow will slide off, the cats can jump up onto the highest rafters in the playground. Best of all, from a shelf mounted on the back of the fortress, they can run in and out of the first-floor window that now provides a SECOND portal to and from the playground!

(Remember - CLICK TO ENLARGE any picture on this page):




The cats also discovered that one of the posts inside the playground has been transformed into a circular staircase. They saw immediately that they could use the stairs, not just to climb up to the rafters, but as launching pads from which to ambush each other!





The cats are increasingly excited as they figure out more and more ways to play on the Fortress and on the circular stairs. They are grateful to Dean Martin and Brodie Machon, who built the Fortress and stairs:


Pat and Henry say, THANKS AGAIN to Dean Smith Carpentry Services, 69 Kingston Road, Cornwall, PEI, COA 1HO.

Compare our Fortress to this one, at the Wildcat Sanctuary in Sandstone, MN. To see more photos of our big cousins, go to http://www.wildcatsanctuary.org/.