Pet-friendly homes for your furry family

Sandy Robins • E-mail

Cheryl and John Leonard of Irvine, Calif., have a unique timeshare arrangement with their cats. Monday through Friday the felines have complete run of the spacious house. They can climb on counters and snooze wherever they like.

On weekends, the menagerie is confined to a specially-designed apartment with easy access to a secure outdoor living area. Then the Leonards pull off the white dust covers that keep their designer furniture fur-free and settle down to enjoy time alone in their home.

“The house is more theirs than ours,” explains Cheryl Leonard. “After all, they are at home all day while I’m out working so it only seems right to cater to their needs. And on weekends when we sit outdoors or entertain, they can see us from their outdoor enclosure, which has a little patch of grass for them to nibble on, staircases and ledges that allow them to enjoy the sunshine and continue to feel involved in all activities.”

The Leonards’ beagle "Daisy" has the run of the yard by day, including a fenced-off doggie play area.

As more Americans consider themselves "pet parents," it's not surprising that they are adapting their homes and lifestyles to their furry family members.

“Animals want the same things that humans do and people need to understand that,” says Leonard. “They want companionship and to be kept clean and secure. They also want their personal space. Naturally, we took all this into account when we remodeled the home."

So what does it take for a home to qualify as pet-friendly?

Bob Walker Bob Walker and Frances Mooney of San Diego tailored their home with ceiling-high walkways for their five cats.

“It’s not just a matter of being pet-friendly, but rather a question of giving your pets environmental enrichment,” say San Diego-based animal photographer Bob Walker and his artist wife, Frances Mooney.

Fast-growing movement
Walker and Mooney are widely considered initiators of the fast-growing pet environmental enrichment trend in America, a movement that includes adding fancy furnishings, window seats and elaborate play structures to give lucky four-legged friends a place to escape or nap. Manufacturers like Midnight Pass in Norwell, Mass., are tapping into the fad with multi-story kitty condos and tunnel systems that can be set up either indoors or on patios or gardens to allow pets to safely enjoy sunshine and fresh air.

Customizing a home can run from several hundred dollars for an enclosed mesh tunnel for cats or small dogs up to thousands for customized interior structures.  

Walker and Mooney had five cats when they moved into their suburban home in the late 1980s and decided to transform it into a feline adventure park. It is still a work in progress.

A floor-to-ceiling scratching column covered in 395 feet of pink-dyed sisal and connected to a wall-to-wall beam just below ceiling height was the first change. The scratching column provided their kitties a launching pad to an overhead fun zone.

“Initially, the cats would run full speed down the hall chasing each other, go up and over the top of the two couches and climb up the column and race along the beam and hit a dead end where it connected to the wall," says Walker.

Midnight Pass An enclosed mesh tunnel lets cats or small dogs play outside safely.

So the cats wouldn't be trapped by the wall, Walker and Mooney extended the beams through the walls, running them from room to room to create 140 feet of cat pathways. They added more kitty roaming space with ramps and staircases.

These walkways of discovery and adventure lead to ceiling-high hiding-holes and lookout stations, because as Walker explains, “everyone knows cats like to look down on us.”

The couple's experience tailoring their home for their frisky felines led to the best-selling books, "The Cat’s House" and "Cats into Everything."

“We had an open house when we launched the book and 900 people passed through in the first four hours,” says Walker, who now customizes interior design layout for cat lovers.

For those interested in making their home more pet-friendly, Walker says, owners should consider their pet's individual needs. “Leave enough space from the walls for wide-berthed cats to be able to turn around. Spiral staircases are great for youngsters but elderly cats prefer ramps.”

“And whatever you design, ensure that it has human access,” warns Mooney. “Cats hide when they are frightened or ill and you need to be able to get to them at all times.”

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