In Central California, during the summer, Mother Nature leans hard on the thermostat and then brings out the blow torches. Typical high temperatures run in the 90’s or low 100’s, with occasional runs of 110+ days I like to refer to as ‘facemelters.’
Why the wool clad, petticoat bedecked geniuses of 1859 decided to found Fresno in a climate that doesn’t suffer fools (or really, anyone at all) gladly is beyond me. Why I chose to settle here is a story best left for another day, but I have learned to adapt to it. This means copious air conditioning, buckets of sun screen, and any work outside is done in the morning and quickly.
As you might imagine, this made the whole building a giant cattery thing go a lot slower than my original, insanely optimistic notions lead me to believe. A weekend stretched into weeks, which then unfolded into months.
There were weekends where the stress of my duties as a Small Primate Activities Coordinator left me with barely enough energy and motivation to operate a remote, let alone a drill, power saw, or even a paint brush. Still, little by little, bit by bit, the cattery was taking shape.
I got the structure build:
I stained it:
Not to mention myself:
I put the roof on:
I took a trip back east for a friend’s wedding:
Note: If you build your own cattery, a wedding trip isn’t essential to the construction process.
I got the hog wire cut and put on:
And finally, some time in early August, 2014, about six months after I started, it was ready for the cats:
smoredogs 