One hot morning in early July I passed a sign for a yard sale and stopped on a whim. I found this nice, old, wooden doll bunk bed. It was made in the late 1940s or 1950s. It was in good condition except for the stain you see in the photo. I thought it might be a nice thing to keep my plush animals in. I did not figure on the cats. Of course they had to check it out immediately, but they also had to get in it.
Attending a flea market later on I saw another bunk bed almost identical to it, but it was painted. A woman around sixty years old was reminiscing about having one like it and the price was about her age in dollars. I paid five.
I hadn't even gotten the bed into the living room before Emily climbed in it.
Midnight's fur looks so shiny in this photo. The straw on the floor below her is his sister's playtoy.
Emily in particular fell in love with the bed. She would allow only two plush animals at the bottom of it.
As you can see from the second photo, the platform was not made for healthy ten pound cats. Within a week I came home from work to find the top one had given out on Emily. A friend cut out two new hefty platforms out of plywood and I bought new hardware to hold them. The original supports hadn't been varnished and they disintegrated when I removed them. Unfortunately I messed up putting in the new platforms and I still have to fix them. However I have an electrical tool that heats rubber stamp ink for an embossing effect and it turns out it heats up glue to remove it. Isn't that lucky? I should have a glue heating session soon, as soon as I locate chisel to scrape the glue away. I know my cats would love to be able to sleep in the bunk bed the way they want to again.
I figured I probably wouldn't be the only cat owner using doll furniture for her cats and now I know I'm not.
Oooh, now I need a bunk bed for them! I can imagine them smacking at each other from the top and bottom bunks. :)
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