We have two cats, and needed to have a way to restrain them during the day while we are at work. I found a site on the net called Dr’s Foster & Smith, which specializes in pet supplies.
On this site I found a Cat Play Pen for $169.99. The picture looked like it was just what we were looking for. The dimensions were 36″ x 24″ x a full 48″ high. There were two doors to make it easy to place the cats in and take them out. The cage was supposed to fit on a rolling base. There were two shelves for the cats to sit on and the way it looked I figured there was plenty of room to put in a litter box, and water.
Perfect, I thought. I ordered the Cat Play Pen, and within a week, it was delivered. The Cat Playpen certainly looked like the dimensions advertised were correct. The instructions consisted of a one page drawing with a few vague directions.
The base of the Cat Play Pen needed to be assembled first. This was the easy part. All the base consisted of was some castors for the rolling bottom. So far so good.
The cage part itself consisted of one piece. Here is where it got difficult. The one-page instructions showed one person putting the Cat Play Pen together. It took my wife and I over two hours to get this cage together.
The first thing was to unfold the cage portion. You had to try to lock the sides into corner locks on all sides. Then you needed to lift up the ceiling panel, and lock that into place. To get this accomplished, you had to practically pull the Cat Play Pen apart on one side to get the ceiling locked.
Then we needed to place the shelves in the center to hold the Cat Play Pen open. The shelves were nearly impossible to get into place. You would get one in, and then you could not get the second shelf in. As I stated before, it took us nearly two hours and a lot of grumbling to get this product assembled.
Then we had to take the Cat Play Pen and place it on the rolling bottom. You had to line it up into the grooves in the bottom, and then they recommended you install two screws to lock it in place.
On the plus side, once we got the Cat Play Pen assembled, it was what we were looking for. For anyone considering this product, I recommend an engineering degree or a lot of patience.
