Saturday, October 15, 2016

Scientist banned from installing catflap by his landlord has built a ladder for his feline friend

An ingenious scientist has built a homemade ladder so his beloved cat can travel freely in and out of his house in Oxford, Oxfordshire, after his landlord banned him from having a catflap.



Tariq Khoyratty, 26, made the 7m ladder, which is 15cm wide, for less than £25 from four 6ft decking planks and strips of wood. His girlfriend Nikki Wheeler, 26, came up with the idea after their estate agent banned them from fitting a catflap to their 17th century Grade II listed cottage’s back doors. Tariq has lived in the £500,000 three-bed property for the past two years.





Since building and installing it last Saturday, their five-month-old ginger tom cat called Nelson has been constantly running up and down the wooden structure. It is attached to the couple’s first floor bedroom window with an easily detachable elastic bungee cord. Tariq, who is currently studying a PhD in Immunology at Oxford University, said: “We were a little apprehensive at first as to whether he’d use the ladder so we made a small practice one which we propped against the downstairs window.


YouTube link.

“Once he was used to that we coaxed him onto the larger ladder with treats and he took too it very quickly. He now uses it as his main access route in and out of the house. This is perfect for us as he’s now free to come and go as he pleases without one of us having to act as a doorman. Our main concern was that Nelson might slip off the ladder, he has been known to fall off the back of the sofa, which is why I installed the rungs.”

2 comments:

Ratz said...

If you google for the term katzentreppe, you'll find all sorts of cat ladders, mainly for people living in flats; including some rather fancy spiral staircase ones.

Miss Cellania said...

I knew that "first" floor in British means "second floor" in American. Today I learned that "estate agent" means "landlord." I always though it was something like a real estate agent, who sells houses.