Stairs and cubbyholes are a few of the attractions of the new cat room.
photo by Michael Locke
At long last, against all odds, Lady Luck has turned a smiling face on 11 of Hamilton County’s most desperate residents.
The beneficiaries – 11 surrendered, lost and/or stray cats that wound up at the Humane Educational Society because nobody anywhere wanted them – are the lucky first residents of a brand new, state-of-the-art cat room that will be their home until they are adopted.
The cat room, the creation of Signal Mountain resident and woodworker Barbara Rhinehart, has been in the works since last spring. Built largely with sisal, carpet and other materials donated by Lowe’s on Highway 153, it is nothing like the rows of small, stainless steel cages in which the cats used to be housed.
Inspired by The Cats' House – a best-selling book by cat-lover Bob Walker and his wife, Frances Mooney, which has motivated animal shelters across the nation to redesign the areas where they hold animals awaiting adoption – the room features multi-colored walkways, cubbyholes and staircases designed to provide homeless animals with an environment where they can feel safe and comfortable.
Its centerpiece is a floor-to-ceiling “palm” tree that features a sisal-covered trunk perfect for sharpening claws and climbing, and carpet-covered fronds and “coconuts.”
Potential owners can stand outside and watch as the cats romp and play in the room, and then go inside to interact with the animal they are considering adopting under relatively stress-free conditions.
The 11 cats that now live in the room have all been vaccinated and spayed or neutered. “They’re ready to go to their new owners,” said Guy Bilyeu, HES executive director.
When one of these cats is adopted, he said, another vaccinated, spayed or neutered cat will be moved in so it, too, can meet potential owners in relatively stress-free conditions.
“We have no shortage of waiting cats,” he said.
The new room at the Humane Society is a lot like the room Ms. Rhinehart built several years ago in her own home for her four cats, after reading The Cat’s House. Her friend, Humane Society kennel manager Heather Crossno, saw the room and told Mr. Bilyeu about it. The rest is history.
Never one to miss an opportunity to improve the lives of the animals in his care, the HES executive director asked Ms. Rhinehart if she could build a cage-free room where cats could live and play while waiting to be adopted.
She said yes.
“I love the beach, so I chose to do a 'Caribbean Jubilee' beach theme in bright happy colors,” she said.
Ms. Rhinehart, a native of Tampa, Fla. and former resident of Santa Barbara, Calif., moved to Tennessee in 1978 and has lived in Signal Mountain since 1997.
Designing and building the cat room took her back almost three decades, to the period between 1975 and 1980 when she owned a wood shop that designed accessory pieces of furniture – medicine cabinets, bread boxes, toilet paper holders, etc. – that were sold to Macy’s, Bullock’s, Penny’s, Habersham Plantation and other retailers.
A skilled woodworker, she also bought, remodeled and sold homes long before “flipping” houses got to be cool, and did interior design and decorating.
At the Humane Society, working together, Ms. Rhinehart and a variety of HES employees and volunteers installed a huge Palladian window at one end of the room and wall-to-wall glass doors on the other end. Sundecks, curved to match the top of the window, were built in below the window.
“I was thinking of ways to give the cats additional sleeping areas when I came up with the idea for the 'floating' wall cubbyholes,” Ms. Rhinehart said. “And I based the palm tree on a much smaller version that I saw online.”
The design process took several days and coming up with a list of needed materials another couple of days, she said.
“I always kept in mind how the room would work – how cats could access all the spaces, how people could
interact with the cats,” she explained. “There are even cloud-shaped mirrors on the ceiling so you can view the cats when they are on the upper sun deck or the top of the palm tree.”
Litter boxes are hidden under the lower sundeck by a beach-style fence.
Chili the cat watches from the palm tree for someone to adopt her.
photo by Michael Locke