Contraption Review: *****

I'm giving this homemade contraption five stars, a kiss and a hug!
Let me tell you just what it does: Stops my kitty cat from climbing the tree and getting stuck in the branches or jumping onto the roof, from whence I will NEVER be able to help her down.

I wanted Beena to be able to play in her new garden and enjoy scratching / sharpening her claws on the massive trees in the yard (just like she used to do back home at my folks' place). But alas! In her nervousness with adapting to a new environment, I found that she would RACE up to the top of the tree at the slightest movement or loud noise, and it would take me FOREVER to coax her down again. Cats also tend to run AWAY from you while you're trying to help them, so I found that she would look at the roof (just a few inches away) and be getting ready to pounce on top, instead of coming to me and safety. At my parents' place, we found a little route that she could follow to get back to solid ground, but here at the new place, there's no such thing. I'd have to get a ladder... And even that won't work because, like I said, cats run AWAY from you when you're trying to help. It would have been a real disaster if she got onto the roof...



So my dad and I devised this cunning plan involving some plastic chicken wire, some washing line wire and a few bits of plastic coated wire to secure it all in place. It basically looks like a wire lampshade that sits around the trunk of the tree about 2meters off the ground. Beena can scratch as much as she wants and climb to a height of 2meters, but once she sees the obstruction, she quickly scampers down again and finds another curiosity to investigate elsewhere in the garden. Phew.

And of course, the tree is not harmed in any way at all and the contraption is barely visible from a couple of meters away.