apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

it's a cat filing cabinet. Is this how you save money at the shelter?

Ha, I thought it was a hacked Expedit at first glance.

That is too cute. Is 2 in 1 snuggling not allowed?!

holy crap that's cute!

I love that! So cute!

Wig3000, that was my first thought. What a great use for the Expedit.....

that is so cute!

This made my day. New desktop background time!

*head explodes from cuteness*

Ha. That reminds me of the bulk nests in our chicken coop growing up.

Good thing the cats on the farm didn't figure that out. There would have been a revolt.

At first though, who has that many cats... then went awwwwwww no-kill animal sanctuary. What a cute little idea for cat beds!!! Very cool! It's a cat apartment building!!! Awwww!

They have those at the SPCA (no kill also) that I volunteer at. They are super convenient not to hold just cat beds but litter boxes at the bottom also. I wonder how they got those 16 cats to all stay in one spot at the same time...

awe

Do the cats each have their own spot? What happends when one of the penthouse cats wants to be in a lower level cave? First come first serve? I am also curious about how all 16 happened to go home to nap at the same time.

awwwwwwwwww zomg cat cubbies

Does anyone know of any no kill shelters in the los angeles area (korea town/ downtown) to be more specific just picked up 3 6week old kittens off the street last night and want to give them good homes.

Gee . . . wonder if I could use my bookshelves this way? Guess I should get more cats and try it. Great solution for giving each cat a "home" of its own.

My cats do this with my Expedit all the time, because I haven't filled all of the cubbies yet. =)

Those are the most organized cats I've ever seen.

They need to organize themselves by color, lol

i'm in the minority i guess. this is CREEPY. every nightmare i have of cat ladies realized. the stench of cat piss. the hive inducing dander. the fights for food and screeches for territory.

no-one should keep that many cats (or dogs) in that small of a space. no kill clearly.....but i wouldn't call it humane or "cute".

please spay your pets.

healthyhome how do you know how small the space is? you can't see the rest of the room!

Its a SHELTER not someone's house. The shelter I volunteer at cleans EVERYDAY and they don't accept animals they don't have room for because its NOT humane.

And spaying your pets is a good idea. If you are taking care of feral animals you should talk to you local shelter about having them neutered too. Some shelters offer discounts or even free services as well as programs for TNR, trap, neuter, release.

chusmabilly: try this: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/CA209.html

there's a woman there named melissa that is wonderful. there's a chance they may be full, but it's worth a shot. i've been there before looking for a rescue and you can tell they all care about the cats. about a month ago, they had 70 cats and kittens.

goodluck

I love cats, and this picture made me smile, but I had to chortle a little at healthyhome's peevish comment. Unlike municipal shelters, so-called "animal sanctuaries" often are a shelter and someone's house, so they're warm, friendly and certainly humane places, yet also tend to have noteworthy urine aromas and dander in the air that the kindly proprietors' noses have long become inured to. These places are an appropriate channeling of cat lady energy, in my opinion.

Cute, but the cabinet and floor looks filthy.

Rikki's Refuge is an all species animal sanctuary in Orange, VA. If anyone is in the area, come out for a tour -- or to volunteer you can find info at: http://www.rikkisrefuge.org.

Corpsurfer: Yes, when you run an animal shelter that has several thousand animals and several hundred cats the place gets dirty. However, the floors and animal areas are cleaned and washed every day. We can't always get the "photo ops" when things are completely neat and shiny. Well, we could if we kept the cats in individual cages, but they are have the luxury of not having to live that way.

Healthyhome: Rikki's is a private animal sanctuary on over 360 acres of land. Like I said, there are several thousand animals there from ducks to dogs to emus to cats.

There are many runs and enclosures for the animals, and the cats in the photo that you find so creepy live inside old farmhouse that functions as office space and a space for seniors and special needs animals. What you don't see, is that they have complete access to an outdoor run through that room if they choose to use it. We would have preferred that their families would have kept them and provided life-long homes to them, but that didn't happen.

Sounds like you don't like cats in general -- or maybe it is the whole idea of providing a lifecare facility for animals that have been tossed? As a volunteer there, I can assure you that there are no fights for food (there is an abundance for all); no screeches for territory (all are spayed/neutered); no "cat ladies" that fit your stereotype.

But hey, thanks for the comment that people should spay/neuter their pets. If you are actually interested in working toward that goal, we can point you to many wonderful clinics that need help -- I mean, if the smell of cats is not too much for you.

all i say is.........ugh.........cats........I'm not that big on cats, and thats just TOOOOO MUCH

proud cat lady here, that picture is adorable!

hmm, I thought my apartment was full up with two cats, but if I could get them to organize like that, I think I could get a few more in!

Ked, it's nice that these animals have a caring place to go when their families can't keep them anymore. Good work!

I'm with you lemonadefish, if I can get my two cats to line up like that anything can be accomplished!

we've tangled a couple of threads here -- did one of those cats sneak out and have its wicked way with a ball of yarn?

I'm not big on cats or cutes, but this did bring a smile and a search for the email addy of a crazy cat lady I know. When I find it, she gets the link.

Also, a lot of people who are not fond furry four legged things are nevertheless upset at cruelty to animals. And take action. As one such I did not appreciate the snarky tone of a couple of the other posts here.

I like cats...from a distance. This picture makes me nervous, I know...its a shelter...I just keep thinking of the stink and the cats turning against you…and to think, most of my friends are "animal people" too.

the answer to you question is yes- the kitties on top must pay more rent for that wonderful view! The kitties in the middle are pissed at the upstairs and downstairs neighbors!
And the bottem ones are worried about cat burglers! :P

couldn't resist- sorry peeps- this is too cute

LOL

Cute Jenna! Why do people go to posts if it's something that they're not even into. You may be bored at work so just go waste your freakin time on another post so the rest of us can smile.

I think what's great about this photo is that it demonstrates that cats are in fact social animals, and not the solitary isolationists that they can be rumored to be. Cats form colonies like dogs form packs.

I had three cats, then two, then one. When #2 cat passed away at 16 years, I thought cat #3 would be thrilled to be the only cat in town. She became, to my surprise, distraught and clingy. She was constantly underfoot, yowling for attention, over-zealous at the kibble-bowl, and downright unhappy.

I decided to adopt an adult cat from the local shelter and voy-ola, all the stress evaporated. This is not to say that cats #3 and #4 are the very best of cuddly friends, but they do sleep in proximity to eachother, spend time in the yard simultaneously, and greet me at the door together by presenting their bellies for rubs and skritches.

Now I just have to control the urge to go find cat #5!

As someone who has been in quite a few and volunteered at several no-kill animal places, I must say that this whole smell of cat stench is a little bit off the mark. I've seen several places where lots of cats get along beautifully, have ample litter boxes cleaned several times a day and, guess what, NO SMELL!

If you're not in to cats, you're not in to cats. I think anyone at the sanctuary would tell you they'd love it if everyone would spay and neuter their pets.

For me, I think this is definitely an "awe" picture. The cats look healthy and relaxed.

Just a note, since a lot of you are really emphasizing the "no-kill" aspect of shelters. When a majority of no-kill shelters run out of room and foster homes or have very sick animals, they send them to regular shelters to get euthanised. No-kill doesn't mean that every animal there gets to live.

I printed this out for my bulletin board because it's cute - showed it to my boss - he had an immediate reaction of disgust. I have no idea how that works, but if we were showing the same picture only with frogs or snakes or bugs or raccoons (probably), I might begin to see. Not everyone likes even one cat and this is a picture of 16.

I really still think it's adorable how they cooperated into their apartments. I used to have 2 cats who did that in the cabinet above the refrigerator.

There will always be the negative folks out there who just HAVE to make comments. I personally just roll my eyes and keep checking out the sites. I would rather see those cats hanging out on a shelf than running around outsite with no care. Oh, and btw I AM one of those crazy cat ladies :P

What a brilliant idea for a shelter with lots of kitties!! They look so round and content in each space =)