A New Photo Book Documents the Wonderful Homemade Cat Ladders of Switzerland

There are days when Cal­gon is not escape enough…

Days when one longs to be a cat, specif­i­cal­ly a free-rang­ing feline of Bern, Switzer­land, as fea­tured in graph­ic design­er Brigitte Schus­ter’s forth­com­ing book, Swiss Cat Lad­ders…

Some Amer­i­can cats come and go freely through—dare we say—doggie doors, those small aper­tures cut into exist­ing points of entry, most com­mon­ly the one lead­ing from kitchen to Great Out­doors.

The cit­i­zens of Bern have aimed much high­er, cus­tomiz­ing their homes in align­ment with both the feline com­mit­ment to inde­pen­dence and their fear­less­ness where heights are con­cerned.

As Schus­ter doc­u­ments, there’s no one solu­tion designed to take cats from upper res­i­den­tial win­dows and patios to the des­ti­na­tions of their choos­ing.

Some build­ings boast sleek ramps that blend seam­less­ly into the exist­ing exte­ri­or design.

In oth­ers, sure­foot­ed pussies must nav­i­gate ram­shackle wood­en affairs, some of which seem bet­ter suit­ed to the hen house.

One cat lad­der con­nects to a near­by tree.

Anoth­er start­ed life as a drain spout.

Humans who pre­fer to out­source their cat lad­ders may elect to pur­chase a pre­fab­ri­cat­ed spi­ral stair­case online.

Pre-order Swiss Cat Lad­ders for 45 € using the order form at the bot­tom of this page. The text, which is in both Ger­man and Eng­lish, includes dia­grams to inspire those who would cater to their own cat’s desire for high fly­ing inde­pen­dence.

All pho­tographs © Brigitte Schus­ter

Via Colos­sal

Relat­ed Con­tent:

An Ani­mat­ed His­to­ry of Cats: How Over 10,000 Years the Cat Went from Wild Preda­tor to Sofa Side­kick

Two Cats Keep Try­ing to Get Into a Japan­ese Art Muse­um … and Keep Get­ting Turned Away: Meet the Thwart­ed Felines, Ken-chan and Go-chan

Meet Fred­die Mer­cury and His Faith­ful Feline Friends

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine.  Join her in New York City this June for the next install­ment of her book-based vari­ety show, Necro­mancers of the Pub­lic Domain. And con­grat­u­la­tions to her home­schooled senior, Milo Kotis, who grad­u­ates today! Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.