Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Prepping for the cat

As I've been preparing my office for use, I've been keeping in the back of my mind that I'm going to get a cat. So rather then trying to keep him/her off of the equipment rack shelf, I'm going to dedicate a shelf or two for their use which will hopefully keep them out of the works.

When you look at my desk area, I've setup the desk so that it faces the window along the 10' wall in the office. I'm putting a pair of 24x36 Nexel wire shelving units on each side to hold equipment. The left rack is my network rack and contains equipment that needs to stay on during a power outage. The UPS there is a silent unit with no audible alarm, so it won't wake the neighbors. The right side rack is my desktop rack and will hold the Mac Mini, my gaming PC and my video editing PC.

It's geeky, but it looks okay if you keep the cords neatly wrapped with velcro cable wraps. And it's very functional and sturdy. Plus, the shelving is fairly inexpensive (figure $250-$300 for the left-hand rack, including the 2 extra shelves and the fiber board shelf liners).



I also put together a cat tower last night. The idea is that it will give them something to climb on in order to get up to that middle shelf with the sheepskin padded resting area. The sheepskin unit is actually from a cat-shelf that is supposed to go in a window and attaches with velcro to the base of the window. I didn't like the design, so I tied the shelf pad to the wire shelf in my equipment rack. I also plan on putting the small cat carrier up there on that shelf with the door wedged open.





I've also dedicated the very top of the equipment tower for the use of the cat, but I did not make it as comfortable as the middle shelf. If she's on the middle shelf, she'll be easy to reach / pet / keep an eye on. The upper most shelf is a lot higher (the posts are 74").

I think the cat tower was a decent find at Petco. It's not covered in some ugly carpet and it has a sisal scratching post. It'll give her more places to perch and watch me work during the day without having to be on my desk or lap all the time.

(From what I've read... carped-covered scratching posts don't do it for cats. There's not enough resistance in the carpet for them. So a lot of books recommend a different texture like cardboard / sisal / or inside-out carpet. Plus, I'd rather that she get used to scratching something other then carpet.)

Labels: 2007, Apartment, Cat

posted by Wuphon's at 8:05 PM