It looks a bit as if Chelsea Girl is in prison in the first picture - but actually, she's in a cat yurt! (The pictures click bigger.) I have no clue if the person who made this is still making them - I'm thinking it was maybe 15 years ago when my brother gave it to us as a present. I'm also thinking that the wool in the bottom was made at the Knox Woolen Mill in Camden, Maine, where my Dad worked as a fireman (he used to joke that most firemen put out fires but his job was to keep them burning). He initially was hired to shovel some amazing number of tons of coal per day into the furnaces, and then was trained to monitor the furnaces when they switched to oil, which let him continue working into his 70s. (He tried retiring, but didn't like it, so went back to working part time until he died.)
The yurt is made of actual sticks that almost certainly came from real trees, tied together with little bits of shoe laces - very custom made!
As you can see in the second picture, there's plenty of room for her to get in and out when she chooses. My brother David gave me this years ago, and we had a neighborhood cat who spent a lot of time at our house (surprisingly he got along well with our two cats - in fact, they're the ones who invited him in!) - and he liked it - but our resident cats weren't interested, so we put it away after he died. Charlie and I were discussing it recently, and wondered what Chelsea would think of it - and now we know!
She immediately walked over and walked right in - then hopped out when we started trying to take pictures - but once we ignored her for a few minutes, she wandered back in and tried curling up in it.
Since we first set it out on December 28, 2017, Chelsea has been prancing in and out, rubbing on the sticks and trying to nibble on the shoelaces that hold them together, then curling up for a few minutes - then off to another adventure. She also discovered she can sneak up on a little ball that's sometimes near the yurt, and bat it around the supports. And she's discovered that if she barrels in at full speed the whole structure slides along the floor!
Since we set it up and have been watching Chelsea use it, I have been wondering why our other cats weren't interested in it. Gashay, our half-a-tomcat (we shared him with some neighbors), was the other cat who liked the yurt, and he was also a big cat. Not quite as plump as Chelsea, but probably as big. We used to laugh because he started visiting as a half-grown tomcat who was already bigger than either Teji or Tilahun, and soon was as big as both of them combined - but he was very aware that they were the "big" cats and he was the kid, and all it took was a look from one of them and he'd slink off - though he'd be back to finish the food in all three dishes as soon as their backs were turned. Anyway, I'm now wondering if the reason Teji and Tilahun weren't interested in the yurt might be that it was too big for them to feel comfortable in, while it's just the right size for large cats like Gashay and Chelsea.
And we still don't know if it's just new and different or if she'll continue to use it - but we'll find out!