I’ve mentioned in my emails and my personal blog posts this year that I trapped and neutered several stray/feral cats and that one of those cats has stuck around. I decided to build him an outdoor cat ladder leading to my son’s bedroom window on the second floor so he can live up there, especially during the winter. I will explain below why he can’t be in the rest of the house with us.
DIY outdoor cat ladder or stairs to a second-floor window
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That former stray cat has now been named Frank, is microchipped to our address, and follows me everywhere in our yard. He sits by the doors and windows and cries for me to come outside again. He hates being separated from our family. I had first thought that he was feral but quickly figured out that he wasn’t and had just encountered horrible humans in his approximate 5 years of life.
Unfortunately, our three indoor cats can’t stand him. I have integrated many cats over the years, including another stray (if you remember) that looked very similar to him. After having him live in our yard for months now and seeing how my indoor cats interact with him especially when they are in their cat enclosure, I know that the hostility will remain. Some cats just don’t get along. We’ve never had that happen before.
There is also another plot twist and added challenge. He is FIV positive which spreads through vicious bloody cat fights. They could all live together if they wouldn’t fight but since they hate each other, it’s just not possible. It makes me so sad.
People have told me to give him to a rescue or shelter but I just can’t and won’t give up on him though since we have formed such a close bond. Let’s face it, there really aren’t many people willing to adopt a cat like him. And there is a huge chance he’d get euthanized or have to waste away in a cage at a shelter. He has a much better life with us even if it means he will only live in my son’s room and our yard. It’s more than he ever had before.
He is an incredible cat and I just can’t stand seeing him cry for me and thinking that he would have to be out there during another harsh winter especially since an illness would cost him his life. FIV affects the immune system and he is better off inside as much as possible. He barely leaves our yard anymore and stays close at all times. I know that since I have an Airtag on him and can see where he is if I’m not outside.
Outdoor cat ladder inspiration
I tried the garage for him which is way too hot during the summer and way too cold during the winter, plus I don’t want to leave the garage door open or cut a cat door into it. So I thought about what else I could do for him.
You guys know that I’m from Germany and in Germany or Europe in general a lot more people live in apartments with their cats who still go outside. What do those folks do? They build outdoor cat ladders to their second or third-floor apartment balconies or windows to allow a cat access to the residence.
I needed to figure out what type of outdoor cat ladder I could build for him to get him to the porch roof. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on lumber since I didn’t even know if he would be brave enough to use it. So today’s post is to show you what outdoor cat ladder I built and what I still might have to change.
I have seen these types of cat ladders and ramps in person in Germany. Here are some that I found which are either attached to the side of the house or the balcony railing…
My son is an animal lover like me (surprisingly not my daughter even though they were raised the same way) and loved my idea of having a cat door window leading to his room. I wanted this accomplished a couple of weeks before he is heading back to college so he could help me teach Frank how to use it all. It will be difficult when he is back at school because Frank will hate being alone in the room and I will most likely end up sleeping with him until my son moves back after graduation. We have decided that’s what he will do to help him pay off the remainder of his student loans before he moves out for good. We paid for two years of college and he is paying for the other two years.
Supplies I used
Some of the lumber I had left from my outdoor cat tunnels and cat enclosure. I wanted to make sure that I used what we already had in case he wouldn’t use it.
- outdoor wood screws/deck screws in various lengths
- pressure-treated 2″ x 2″s (the amount of them depends on how high your ladder needs to be, I used about 5 of them which I found in the outdoor lumber section for railings)
- one pressure-treated 2″ x 6″ x 10″ (it was just high enough for our porch roof)
- a brick or cement block
- power drill, drillbit to predrill holes slightly smaller than your screws, and a matching screwdriver head for your screws.
- miter saw or other power saw
- outdoor wood stain
- extra strong zip ties (optional)
How to build an outdoor cat ladder
I started by cutting all my stair tread pieces and support pieces ahead of time with my electric miter saw.
I decided to go with a 24-inch step size for my cat ladder.
The reason some of it is stained already is that I had those boards left from when I recently fixed some rotten boards in my cat enclosure tunnels.
You have to figure out where you want to attach your base post to your house or structure. You can also use a fence post 4″x 4″.
I attached the 2″ x 6″ x 10″ board to my porch post with large strong zip ties in several places. My husband was confused as to why I did that and the reason is that I didn’t want to drill and anchor anything into our house until I knew it was going to get used. It is holding up pretty well that way, to be honest.
Then I predrilled holes into the 2″ x 2″ and attached them in alternating opposite directions to the base post about a foot apart.
Next, I predrilled holes into the boards that I was going to use as stair treads. These are actually boards used to make fence panels but you can use whatever you want.
Then I attached them with several deck screws to the support pieces I attached earlier.
Note: These treads are strong enough for a cat but definitely not strong enough for a human to climb up on them.
Below you can see Frank trying out the stair treads for the first time. I had to guide him up with treats. He was curious but also scared. It is a learning curve!
Above you can see that I added a ramp from the tree to the top part of the ladder that is attached to the porch post to give him another option. He gave me that idea after jumping from the ground to the tree.
Then I added another outdoor cat ladder on an angle to the tree to make it easier for him to get into the tree.
He does pretty well with jumping up and down into the tree without a ladder though too. He amazes me because it appears that he had broken ribs at some point. You can feel a bone protruding from his chest when you pick him up. They must have not healed the right way.
Below you can see how I built the ladder by using 2″ x 4″s and more of the same wooden boards that I used to make the ladder on the side of the house. They are screwed into the 2″ x 4″s at an angle.
I still need to stain everything. I didn’t want to go that far and put all that work and money in unless I knew he was definitely using this outdoor cat ladder setup. Cats are finicky and you never know.
For the bedroom window, I used the same cat window inserts/cat flaps that I used for our cat enclosure to the living room. Make sure you measure your window before you order, they come in different widths.
Photos of my former stray cats
Frank has also brought his daughter or maybe granddaughter along who was born wild and is feral. She is about 2 years old and I also had her spayed in February. Of course, I’m only guessing that they are related since there were two dominant unaltered males in our neighborhood that I had fixed and the other one didn’t look anything like this female.
I started calling her Pixie. She will have to live in our yard in a heated cat house unless she can get brave enough to walk the cat ladder with him into our son’s bedroom.
They are adorable together and I love their bond. It makes me sad to think that she is confused when he is gone for long periods of time while sleeping in the bedroom.
I bought them the below pet tent and Frank loves it! I’ve only seen her in it with him once but who knows what she does at night.
Can you spot him sitting on the roof in the next photo? My neighbor texted me the other day “There is a cat on your roof” and I laughed and replied, “I know”. He loves sitting up there and being able to look at the entire neighborhood.
Our porch is still one of my favorite spots to hang out. If you are new to my blog, then check out my painted concrete porch tutorial. It’s still holding up well after several years.
However, there is still the issue of the porch roof being too hot to walk on during a heat wave but thankfully that is only an issue for maybe one month during the year and I’m not sure how to address that. So far I lead him out of the bedroom in the morning before the sun hits the roof and back inside when the sun goes down. Any other suggestions?
I also successfully taught him how to use the litterbox. When he slept in the garage during storms, he had no idea what a litterbox was which worried me a bit. He quickly learned after I covered the litter with a layer of mulch and then slowly removed that layer over time. Now he happily uses a litterbox with litter in my son’s bedroom.
Look at him sleeping in my son’s comforter:
It was very important that I added self-closing hinges on the bedroom door so nobody would leave the door open accidentally. I also closed off the cat hole in his door so my other cats would stay out of his room. The window in the door enables them to see each other though.
Frank has come such a long way. Look at his scared body posture in the below photo from last winter. It was taken through a window and the minute he saw me, he ran.
More of my cat DIY ideas and tutorials
That’s it for today and if you made it to the end of this long post you are a champ!
Tschüß,
