Sure, you want to buy your finicky feline a custom-made carpeted cat stand. But will your maddening puss just stare at or ignore it?
“Once a cat knows its there, it becomes like their own castle,” says Skylar Van Heukelom, a first year cat furniture vendor at the St. Albert Outdoor Farmers’ Market.
Along with his wife, Heidi, the duo has assembled a fledgling business selling cat trees, scratching posts and condos. And although they’ve been in business only six months, they’re already receiving orders from areas farther afield such as Rocky Mountain House and British Columbia. “The pet industry is huge and people are always looking to buy things for their pets.”
Ironically, their successful venture stems from a health related fluke. Van Heukelom used to work as an accountant for Alberta Health Services. However, in 2008 when Stephen Duckett merged the varying provincial health boards into one superboard, his workload doubled almost overnight.
Overtaxed and stressed out, Van Heukelom developed respiratory problems later diagnosed as asthma. During a leave of absence, Van Heukelom read an article about cat furniture.
Inspired by the article, he rushed home and presented the idea to Heidi. “My wife loves cats. Before I was an accountant, I worked as a mason and carpenter. I had the hand skills. I knew that at some time I wanted to have a business from home. Something clicked and I knew it fit.”
Heidi, a graduate of NAIT’s two-year architectural technology program, designed the blueprints for their first cat tree and Van Heukelom built it. “We put it on Kijiji and someone bought it right away.”
The response was so immediate and from so many different quarters, the couple is looking at developing a system to ship individual carpeted pieces to out-of-town clients who can put them together themselves.
Van Heukelom speculates the interest is in part generated because he sells his cat furniture at 20 to 25 percent below pet store prices. “They truck them in from the States. We make them here.”
The Van Heukelom’s oversized garage is equipped with a variety of saws, a router, air compressor, air stapler and facemasks. “With the correct tools, you can design anything you want and cats will love it.”
Although the duo will build any special custom order, most of the market’s dozen or so pieces had several trademark features — a broad plywood base, sono tubing cut in half to create perches, peephole windows and sisal rope twined around the base for scratching and sharpening claws.
The couple also applies a non-toxic contact cement underneath the carpet that will continue to keep cats purr-fectly healthy should they rip through the material.
“There’s a special job satisfaction in creating something people will use and love. People even send us photos of their cats and many people return to buy more than one.”
For more information visit www.purrrfectcatness.com.
