Cat Tree

How do you make your cats the coolest cat tree they can think of? Get a real tree.

Our cats are indoor only, so they don’t often get to interact with actual trees (At least not since being adopted into our family). Enter the inspiration for this build. Getting them something to climb on, scratch on, and generally just enjoy. A neighbor had recently cut down a small tree and was getting rid of it. I don’t typically work with uncured logs… So this was a little bit of a first for me.

I grabbed a short section of the seedling, around 5 feet of it. I ended up cutting it to length with my sawzall, which was the only really safe way I could think of to handle a round piece in my shop. My band saw would be much too small to cut this (It’s just a little benchtop affair), and it’s really unsafe to try to crosscut something round on a tablesaw. I’m sure a jig could be devised to do so safely, but… nothing obvious comes to mind for me, and I’m all about safety in my shop.

I processed the log into roughly 2 foot sections and started laying it out on some 1/2” plywood I had as scraps.

I also used some scrap 2x4s I had around the shop as I couldn’t build the entire thing from the tree, and I wanted to add some twine wrapped things for them to scratch at as well for variety, since I know they like that.

Joinery-wise we’re not looking at anything fancy here. It’s just 2.25” cabinet screws. I predrilled pilot holes for them to avoid splitting the tree, and just had at it.

I ended up getting a cheap area rug from the hardware store to give them something to sit on/scratch on each of the platforms. I used a staple gun to upholster the plywood.

I also added a blanket as a tent/hiding spot.