Taking Apart The "Cat Hotel"

From many, many years ago, filched from an old blog no longer available:


Many years ago, a relative who owned many cats gave us their old "cat hotel."

Think of a wooden crate 3 feet wide by 7 feet long and 4 and a half feet high with windows and little shelves for kitties to play on, etc. and you'll know what I am talking about. It sat behind our garage for many years decaying in rain, snow, and heat.

Today, I took it all apart and put the wood on a burn pile for the world's most awesome bonfire.

I also have a garbage can filled with screws. Hundreds of them. I thank heaven for an electric drill that has a Philips screw bit. I would have lost my wrist otherwise.

So what did I learn from this 5-hour long demolition project?

1. I believe I found several new species of spiders never before known in south-central Pennsylvania. 
2. After the first two hours of having spiders crawl all over you, you will eventually stop screaming just so you can get the job done. 
3. Wood that has been in contact with wet ground for many years develops several types of mold that would inspire the minds of all Grade-B horror film directors. 
4. Mold feels fuzzy. 
5. My lower back in its agony can use obscenities that I do not personally know. 
6. Working in the hot sun while Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal plays nonstop in your inner mind is a type of torment very few people will ever appreciate. 
7. When you are dismantling something and tearing it apart using a hammer and other tools while pieces of destruction lay about your feet, children are still capable of asking, "Are you taking the cat hotel apart?" 

Nonetheless, I now have a 3 x 7 foot patch of bare ground on the southward side of my garage fertilized by a decade of mice nests and Monday, I plant my herb garden.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shower the spiders off of myself.