They are serenely self-assured souls who bask in warmth and silently judge as to whether, on a whim, to take you or leave you.
If they take you, they have you wrapped around their soft toe beans, with sharp nails at the ready, and you, the human servant, will stop at nothing to make them happy. It is your duty and mission to serve them.
They are cats, and the people who are owned by felines (that’s how it works) willingly fork over their debit and credit cards for food, litter, vet appointments — and catios, an enclosed area outside for a cat, connected to a house, that protects your purring partner from predators and protects birds and other animals from a cat’s basic instinct (remember the sharp nails).
There are the DIY catios as well as catio kits that can be ordered online. Then there’s the large catio adjacent to the home of Sabrina and Doug Godsey in the Coburg Road area of Eugene. It’s an enclosed space with six shelves, two sets of steps, two ramps, a four-level cat tree, comfortable turf for a cat to nap on in the late afternoon sun and a door leading to the backyard, all designed and built by Denver-based Cat Topia, a company started in 2018 to exclusively build high-end catios. The catio was completed in May 2024, and the smell of cedar is still sharp.
It’s a palace for the very shy 9-year-old female Bubbles and 8-year-old tuxedo man Charlie.
Sabrina Godsey, wearing a pink shirt with cat designs on it, explains that she and her husband had moved quite often — California to Texas to Medford to Eugene — and now they want to stay put in the home they bought in 2023. Both are retired, she as an ultrasound technician and he as a machinist.
“We don’t want to move anymore, so we wanted to do something nice,” she says. “They’re definitely my babies.”
Sky Davis understands. He and Lance Harding formed Cat Topia just as catios were gaining popularity across the country in the 2010s. There are events like the annual “Catio Tour” in Portland, run by the Feral Coalition of Oregon, that highlight how cat servants have become more conscious of keeping their cats safe while allowing them to experience the outdoors.
“We did start it at the perfect time,” Davis says. “They want the best for their animals. They also want what’s best for themselves.” And yes, he adds, that includes the “necessity to get the litter box outside.”
Curiously, Eugene Weekly did not find a construction company in Eugene that is catio-specific. The nearest such construction outfit is Catio Company, which serves Portland and Vancouver, Washington, and Godsey says she was determined to go “with higher quality.”
So she went online and discovered Cat Topia, which now has clients nationwide. Years earlier, while living in Spicewood, Texas, near Austin, she lost a cat to what she suspects was a coyote. In Medford, Godsey had a catio, though it was “much less elaborate.”
With Cat Topia, Godsey worked remotely with Harding on a 3D rendering of the catio, based on photos and dimensions of the house. “He did a really neat barn door thing,” Godsey says, though that idea was scrapped for a simple latch. Other features in the 3D rendering were moved around, and in May 2024, construction began. It lasted five days, Godsey says, and on a Saturday, the job was wrapped up.
It’s not inexpensive. Davis notes that depending on the plans, a contractor, lumber prices and professional carpenters, catios from Cat Topia range in price from $6,000 to $150,000. Godsey says she and her husband spent close to $40,000 for their catio.
So how did the shy Bubbles and Charlie take to their new play area?
“They slowly started going out on their own,” Godsey says. “I would say it took a couple of weeks, but now they’re sun gods.”
All on behalf of cats.