The_Great_Outdoors

Mom and Dad knew that it was best to keep us boyz inside, BUT, Mac would always try to get out the door and they soon realized he was not happy always being in the house. Now what to do.
They put their heads together
(how cute)
and came up with an idea to let us be outside but still safe from the dangers that lurk for unsuspecting cats.

First they went to Petsmart and purchased a *gasp* do it your self dog cage. They bought eight 30" panels and one panel with a door. Putting them together with two panels on each side and two panels on the top and bottom and the door panel on one end. The end without a panel they attached to the the frame of a window. In order to keep the cage even Dad made a stand of 2 x 4's and they attached the cage to that.

Next they purchased a cat door that they could put into the window screen. This enabled us to get in and out and it also keeps the bugs out of the house. We don't understand why mom would want to keep the bugs out, because they are so much fun to play with.

This was great fun but when mom saw that we really liked being outside they decided to give us another place to play. Now the problem was the cage was on the patio and they wanted us to be able to play in the grass. Well again they put their heads together
* we think they like to do that *
and came up with a way.

Dad constructed an entry to a tunnel out 2x4's and attached plastic lattice with screws. Then he cut a hole in one of the side panels and that allowed us to get out of the cage and into the entry.

They made a tunnel out of that corrugated plastic patio cover stuff. Dad took it and with moms help they curved it onto a 2x10 board and then Dad screwed it in place. On the bottom of the board they screwed pieces of pvc pipe so the board would be up off the ground. Dad then cut a hole in the plastic lattice and inserted the tunnel.

Now for what they call the Pen. They got lengths of pvc pipe and fittings. They cut them into five foot lengths and first made a 5 foot tall by 5 foot wide frame and by connecting two poles together a 10 foot long frame. In the middle of the 10 foot sides he put a vertical pole connecting the top to the bottom. Now they had the basic frame. Using plastic garden wire *sigh only 3 feet tall they wrapped it around the frame attaching it with slip ties. *They had to use a lot of ties because * Mac is an excape artist* Because it was only 3 feet tall they had to wrap the top and bottom separately and then attach these with the ties about every foot. Dad put extra pvc pipe accross the center half way from the end and again half way between the center and the end. This made a good frame to attach 3 plastic shelves to the pvc pipe with screws. They used shade cloth for the cover.