Cat Creations · 2026

A tree for the panther in the living room.

I used to say I was a dog person. Then we adopted two rescue cats, and our second one, Lorenzo, started moving through the house like a small panther.

He needed something tall to climb, but I didn't want a beige carpet tower in the living room. So I built him this. Half sculpture, half scratching post. There's a pinch of catnip stashed at the top — he climbs up, loses his mind, jumps off, and then does it again.

Lorenzo, a black cat, sitting on top of the finished cat tree with the LA hills in the window behind.
The Build
01The core
A bare black PVC pipe with a single hole drilled through it.
02Workshop
The pipe in the workshop next to a wooden dowel, a roll of jute rope, and a miter saw.
03Anchoring the rope
04Guess what it is
05Skeleton
The PVC pipe on the workshop floor with two wooden dowels driven through it forming a crossbar.
06Crossbar wrap
Detailed jute rope wrapping at the joint between the column and the wooden crossbar.
07Detail
Close-up of white woven rope crossing over the natural jute wrap on the cat tree.
08Weaving the hammock
09The hammock
The woven rope hammock platform structure close up, with white rope strung between wooden dowels.
10A toy fit for a panther
11Assembly
Side view of the cat tree mid-assembly with the woven hammock attached and the column partly wrapped.
12Anchoring the base
The finished cat tree, a nine-foot jute-wrapped column with a woven hammock at the top, with Lorenzo the black cat sitting at the base.
Lorenzo lying in the woven rope hammock at the top of the cat tree, looking down at the camera.

Lorenzo approves.