The Amazing Wooden Cat Obstacle Course

I've had my cat since May last year. When we got him he was only a few weeks old, so that means he’s yet to have his first birthday. A combination of him being so young and the fact we've yet to get him neutered means that we haven’t let him outside yet. He’s been out in the back yard with us a few times, but only under supervision. Cars scare him too, so he’s stopped trying bolt out of the front door whenever we open it.

During the day he’s left on his own, where he has the run of the house aside from the living room (he has a habit of pulling the carpet up to such a degree that it blocks us from getting in the room). I do often wonder if he’s bored, but the little play cat house we bought him, his scratching post and the majority of his toys lie untouched. Yet put a box down and he can’t help but climb inside. He also has a fondness for going behind the TV, until he’s shouted at and runs off with a wail. So, what do you do to please a bored cat? I've been thinking about building some sort of project for him, which is when I came across this.

Designer Stefan Hofmann clearly doesn't have bored cats, because they've got the most impressive cat obstacle course I've ever seen to play around in. His creations have resulted in a line of cat climbing furniture that’s sold by German company Goldtatze, which translates to gold paw. I can see why they’d call it that, as I’d probably have to be earning quite a bit more to be buying such an elaborate play area for my cat. I'm not sure the landlord would appreciate it either, but let’s not ruin an impressive design by moaning.

Your cat can traverse walkways over molten pits of lava; dive across wall mounted perches situated hundreds of feet above a terrifying drop to into a dry canyon. Before long they’ll reach the birds nest, where they’ll disturb the birds and randomly chase them around the room for hours on end.

Ok, so not all of that is true but the obstacles are still pretty amazing. Each piece is custom built to your specifications, although if you don’t live in Germany then you’re probably going to have to fork out quite a bit for shipping. Or you could get into the DIY spirit and try building some of your own creations. At least your cat would thank you.

Well, when I say your cat will thank you it will probably just jump on to its new territory and promptly continue to ignore you until its feeding time or they want to use your lap as conveniently warm bed.

Here's a video of the cats enjoying their new roaming grounds.

Pictures via Haunspanther.com

Crafty DIY: The Mr. Donut Toolbox

Doughnuts are good, but I also need a place to store my tools. How do I combine the two? How do I eat lovely round sugary contraptions whilst also fiddling with a screwdriver because the hinge on my kitchen door is wonky yet again? These are questions that have plagued mankind since the first monkey picked up a tool, but now, thousands of years later, those questions have been answered in the form of the Mr. Donut toolbox!

One of the great things about being into DIY, and operating DIY blogs off the back of that, is getting to see all the creative ingenious solutions and creations that people come up with. Often all it takes is to look at something and have your brain associate it with something else, which is what happened here. A Japanese blogger known as Magocraft thought that the Mr. Donut – a chain of doughnut shops that are popular in Japan – box looked a lot like a toolbox. So, as someone who’s creative and into crafts they set about turning it into a functional toolbox. The result is a toolbox that neatly opens up to reveal plenty of storage space for your bits.

You can see a step by step guide to creating the box here, or watch the video below. Don’t worry if you don’t know Japanese as the steps are easy enough to follow by just looking at the pictures, but you can get Google Translate to help if you need specifics. You can also try this with any similar shaped box, which is good for those of us who don’t have Mr. Donuts around (unfortunately Krispy Kreme donut boxes are a different shape).

If you don’t fancy the fuss of making your own toolbox, or you’re simply not a fan of doughnuts, you can get some great pre-made – with a better quality build – toolboxes from the lovely folks at Toolbox.co.uk.