Cat Highways

What it does for your cat, and for you

• Your cat gets the room's third dimension. Raised resting places and safe routes count among a cat's basic needs; a wall route adds them without taking floor space.
• It is sized to your cat, not a catalogue. Every step comes from one measurement of your own cat, and the climb is set for its age, so a senior or a kitten gets a gentler route.
• It is checked for a landing, not a sit. A cat jumping down presses on a shelf with several times its weight. The book checks every screw for that, which a "holds 30 lb" label does not tell you.
• You know the cost before you drill. About 373.37 for the wall and 227.10 for the catio in materials, with an honest comparison: more than a budget bought set (200.00), less than a maker-built one (492.00).
• You learn the numbers, not just a plan. Change the wall, the cat or the ceiling and redo every sum yourself: measuring, ratios, area, Pythagoras and a little physics, every step worked in full.

Who it is for

Cat owners who have never built anything, homeowners and renters with the landlord's yes; homes with an indoor cat, more than one cat, a senior or a kitten; anyone about to buy shelves online who wants to judge them; and makers thinking of selling cat shelves. You need a tape measure, a calculator, a pencil and a cat for the first nine chapters, and a drill for the build.

Not for: ceiling-hung walkways, shelves over a stairwell, anything on a balcony, a catio above the ground floor, a walk-in enclosure that needs a permit, or a cat door through an outside wall. If your cat is stiff, lame or newly unwilling to jump, see the vet first. Metric first, imperial beside it; every price illustrative and dated.

What you build, and what it costs

Part A, the wall highway (one weekend). 6 steps of 1x12 pine climb a 4 m wall in a zigzag, 300 mm (about 12 in) at a time from 450 to 1,950 mm. A bridge of 11 slats on two sisal ropes, sagging 120 mm, crosses 1,168 mm to a 34 in lookout on three brackets, and a 36 in post wrapped in 63.0 turns of sisal stands at the foot of the wall. Every bracket goes into a stud.

Part B, the window catio (a second weekend, optional). A mesh box 3 ft wide, 2 ft deep and 3 ft high on its own legs outside a ground-floor window, in 1 × 1 in, 16-gauge welded mesh, with a door, a shelf, shade and water.

Materials at illustrative US home-center prices, November 2026, written without a currency sign. Tools, if you own none, about 153 more.

The book was written in collaboration with AI tools and reviewed by the author. Its numbers are checked by a verification program, and its figures are drawn by the same program, but mistakes may remain: see corrections & errata.