Shortly after my neighbor moved in next door, some guy she was apparently dating at the time brought her and her young son a small calico kitten. Unfortunately, she didn’t really take care of the cat. It started wandering over to my house. She was so skinny, I decided to put some food out for her. After that, she practically moved in. I started calling her Callie. She was a very small cat. She didn’t seem to be growing in length much at all. I guessed her to be around 4 months old. Apparently she was a little older, because her stomach started expanding. She was pregnant! It was early July, 1999, and we were both pregnant. Of course, she gave birth after about 2 months. I gave birth after what seemed more like 20 or 30 months.

Background

I wanted to try to find a good home for her, as I already had three cats inside. Once she became pregnant, I knew that would be hard to do. My husband had become very attached to her. He would go out on the porch just to sit and pet her. It was looking like I was going to have about 8 cats in the house. I knew I couldn’t move her and her kittens inside since I had a baby on the way, too.

Her own room

Since we were both very pregnant, I wanted to make her feel comfortable. I also wanted to protect her from the elements and other cats in the neighborhood. I bought her the Brinkmann one story condo, and put it on my front porch (which is covered.) She loved it. The condo is a round, cylindrical shaped house. It has a round opening in the front so she could easily come and go. It is carpeted inside and out. Her condo is brown. There are several other colors available. At the time, blue, gray, green, and mauve were also offered. I decided that I would give the condo to the person that adopted her. However, I chose brown to match my carpet just in case she moved in.

The New Editions

Callie had her babies on 7-17-99. Three little kittens; one dark gray, one orange, and another orange with white paws. She had them somewhere up under the porch. I actually didn’t see them for a few weeks, but when I did, they immediately moved into the condo with their mom. They loved it! They were always either playing around their new home or sleeping in it.

The hard part

When the kittens were around 8 weeks old, I found two of them a loving home. What about Callie and the kitty with white feet? My husband dubbed the kitty Smokey. We had Callie spayed, and Smokey neutered. They got their shots, and now they are living inside with us.

A New Home

We moved the condo inside. It has been nearly 2 years, and they are still sleeping in or on their one-story condo every day.

More about the Condo

The condo is lightweight, yet sturdy enough to endure the wrath of 5 cats that scratch and play on it. It easily holds 2 smaller cats inside, or one large cat. I usually see at least one cat sleeping inside while another sleeps on top. It comes treated with a little bit of catnip. That gets the cats interested in it, but the catnip seems to wear off in a short period of time.

When it comes right down to it

I would recommend this one-story condo if you have one or two cats. I would even recommend more than 1 condo if you have more than 2 cats. The cats love to sleep in it, and it gives them something to scratch on besides your furniture. I paid $11 for this condo, and it was well worth it.



Recommended: Yes