Engineer vs Cat, part 1
Three quick facts for this first (!) blog post:
- I have a cat named Dixie.
- Dixie is a stubborn cat, who likes to eat plant leaves even though she always pukes afterward.
- I am a stubborn engineer, who likes to grow vegetables in a New York City apartment even though Dixie tries to eat them.
Now that we've got that covered, welcome to part 1 of the ongoing saga where I try to prevent my cat and my plants killing each other.
A medical mystery
Around January 2022, I started to try growing tomatoes hydroponically (because why not). I underestimated just how tall they could grow, which meant the only place they could really grow with enough light was on my living room window sill:
It was around this time that Dixie started to puke fairly frequently. My sister and I were confused – she wasn't vomiting hairballs, she eats a well-moderated amount of cat food, and she actively avoids eating human food. I took her to 2 different vets, ran some expensive tests, and learned that I had a wonderfully healthy cat. Who apparently just likes to vomit every week or so.
One week in April while I was out of town, my sister texted me to say that Dixie had puked yet again. I did some more googling, and finally thought to check whether tomato plant leaves were toxic to cats (surprise, they are mildly toxic to cats). I've definitely seen her nibble on my bok choy plants before, so maybe she was chomping on them when we weren't looking. I asked my sister to try and block off the plants from the cat:
After some experimentation with how to put up the sheet so that there was no way for Dixie to get to any plants, the vomiting died down. Mystery solved! But now I had a different problem: a large unwieldy sheet that covered the window in the living room and made it hard to water the plants. It also just looked bad. Cat: 1, Human: 0.
(Over) engineering a solution
I wish I could say I had a beautifully drawn out plan in a notebook somewhere that I could share. In reality, figuring out how to grow tomato plants in a way that both looked aesthetically pleasing in the living room and didn't poison my cat was more of a constant, evolving background thread in my head over the next 6-7 months.
I'm the type of person who will agonize over a furniture decision for months before finally buying something. Around August 2022, I finally decided to buy this shelf for the tomato plants. I figured the lower shelves could double as a side table I've wanted to have next to the couch anyway, and I would leave out one of the upper shelves to give the plants more vertical space to grow. This was only moderately effective, because the shelf was meant to stand next to the couch, where Dixie could definitely reach the plants. Now I had a nice shelf and the window sill was cleared off, but I had this not-so-nice-looking contraption to keep the cat away:
At this point, I had a rough plan in my head:
- Grow shorter tomatoes
- Hang up stronger lights
- Build some nice looking doors
It turns out you can buy dwarf cherry tomato seeds, which were bred to grow no more than ~12 inches tall (my shelf has 24 inches of vertical space). I started germinating those seeds around the same time that I bought a 3D printer to help me with my various plant-related projects, rather than continuing to bother my very nice friend to print things for me. After a week of figuring out how to level the printer bed, I was able to 3D-print brackets so that I could secure stronger lights to the top-most shelf. The lights also ended up having a nice purple-ish vibe, which made it look cool at night.
For the doors, I wanted 2 doors attached to the sides of the shelf that faced the couch. The doors should swing open so that I could water the plants, but latch closed so that Dixie couldn't get in. It took me a while to figure out how to make doors that were aesthetically pleasing though.
I started with buying knobs, hinges, and magnetic latches from Home Depot in September. About a month later, I wandered into Blick's and found they sold wooden frame pieces of all different sizes. I figured I could buy frame pieces to assemble the doors, and find something see-through to fill the frame so that I could still see the plants when the doors were closed. After a lot of Instagram scrolling, I decided to use rattan for this.
To attach the doors to the shelf, I 3D-printed brackets. After a lot of trial and error with the bracket dimensions, I was finally able to assemble the doors in early November. I even bought wood stain so that the doors would match the color of the original shelf (fun fact: staining wood inside your apartment is a terrible idea).
The end result looks like the below. Take that kitty! Cat: 1, Human: 1.
Never underestimate a cat
I was feeling pretty good about myself during this process, until I got this text from my sister while I was at work one day:
Although I could prevent access on the left by just pushing the shelf closer to the window, I felt like it was only a matter of time before she figured out how to get in from the right side as well. I put some half-hearted deterrents on the right side of the shelf while I started to noodle on what a nice looking wall could look like:
My noodling takes us into 2023, where it was time to start my plants all over again (RIP tomatoes). Since the shelf was pretty much empty, Dixie took this opportunity to figure out how to leap in from the right side. You can see how much remorse she's expressing for her actions below. Cat: 2, Human: 1.
Finishing the shelf
A couple weeks later, my 3D-printing friend happened to have some spare wood and time to help me build a frame to use as a side wall. Luckily, I had just enough rattan left over to cover the frame. The side wall ended up fitting well enough that I could hammer it into place without needing to print more brackets to hold it up (let's just pretend we planned it that way).
At long last, the shelf is complete. My tomatoes have enough room and light to grow as far as their genes will allow, and they're looking pretty good to boot. I still occasionally find Dixie sitting on the window sill staring forlornly at the shelf. At least I think she's staring forlornly, she very well may be plotting her next move. Who knows what cats really think about.
At the very least, the tomatoes are finally safe from Dixie (and vise versa). I can't really say the same for my strawberries, but that's a story for another day...