Cats are innate physicists with a sense of humor. This book is for them and the curious DIYer in their lives. With wit and patience (not pretension), it explains why after introduction of a tiny ball of fluff, a house may suddenly require substantial reinforcement. The projects range from those best suited for beginners (shelves and treat dispensers) to ambitious (cat exercise wheel). Each project is written so that the casual wood worker can build with confidence and the expert can work effeciently. This is a great title for the woodworker looking for unique gifts ideas or the homeowner hoping to please the feline overlords.

An interesting book for pet lovers and how to create interesting environments for a cat.

More fun then a box full of kittens plus it will help you survive being owned by them. Engineering for Cats will make a true creator out of you, allowing you to build useful and even mathematically correct structures so that you may become the King of Kittens!
Full Disclosure: I was allowed to read a copy of this book for free as a member of NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. The opinions I have expressed are my own and I was not influenced to give a positive review.

This is a cute book that is great for cat-owners with at least some DIY skills. The projects are accompanied by engineering information, which as a teacher I appreciate. My older students with cats might learn something about engineering as they read this book, and maybe even build something. The cat wheel plan was most impressive, but I think that you need a very active cat to have any hope of it being used.

I will give this book a 4.5. Told with a wonderful sense of humor and adventure, this book of projects has something for every feline "owner" household. Although be aware that if you add a cat door to any rooms they will then demand one for the bathroom, which used to be a human companion's only sanctuary, however brief.
Mine also did not fall for the fun and adventure of the wheel. They knew before it was built that it is an attempt at forced exercise.
I also did not see the need to add a daily tag for the litterbox cover. Humans need to be trained to scoop several times daily without reminder or reward.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book and to my human engineer who performed the actions requiring opposable thumbs to build the items.

Your cat might be bored. This book wants to help him and you by creating some DIY equipment to enrich your cat's life.

What elevates it beyond the typical DIY book is the author and the care he takes with each project, classified by difficulty & price. Each has excellent instructions that are detailed & illustrated.

Because the author is an engineer, he takes us behind the principles in each project with short essays the explain the engineering.

It's a delightful book.

Without trying to, I seem to have accumulated a plethora of cats. To me these projects seem to be something any cat would like/use. Can’t wait to try them!

This is not a book to teach cats to be engineers. It's also not a book of cats dressed as engineers, cat vs engineer jokes or anything like that. It is, however, a funny and informative DIY manual cleverly mixing real engineering information (under the headers ENGINEERING 101) with real-life cat information to help you build something for your cat. There's even one that's more for human benefit, and all designed by an aerospace engineer and tested by his cat overlords.

The projects vary in difficulty and cost, so anyone who's familiar with a saw should be able to complete at least one, and you don't need specialized equipment.

As I read through, there may have been snickering, mutterings about "must show this to [engineering friend]" and thoughtful noises as I thought about implementation. And the occasional expression of surprise because I never imagined PVC pipe could be so useful! (Spoiler: about half the projects use wood, the other half use PVC pipe in ingenious ways.)

Some people may prefer to skip the more detailed engineering bits (calculating probability or moment) but I found a lot of good information and handy tips, along with a new understanding as to why a perfectly good bookshelf can't support a much-lighter cat. And now I need to go make space in the garage...

Not only is this book helpfully practical, with plenty of great projects for making bits of furniture or equipment for your much-loved cats, it's actually surprisingly humorous and light-hearted. The projects are very clearly instructed with great diagrams, but the writing style of the author really complements the overall finish of the book. For anyone that loves their cats and wants to treat them, this would be a great book!

An entertaining book for the DIY enthusiastic cat owner. Some really great ideas.

Personally, I would prefer a photo at the end of a real cat using the item - all of the pictures are computer animated. I would also like to see a cat tree and a better selection of cat shelves. Maybe integrated cat tree and shelf options. Otherwise, it is a little bit boring.

And there is no way any self-respecting cat would ever use the exercise wheel at the end. Seriously - what were you thinking.

I have a ridiculous amount of cats at any given time. I usually have around 9 on the property, and I foster cats for a local rescue, so I thought this would be up my alley. I really love doing crafts as well as home improvement projects, so again I thought this would be up my alley. No such luck. The book is written with a dry sense of humor and is written with clear instructions. It also tries to tell you ahead of time the problems you might run into while you are trying to create these projects. The problem is, I didn't really feel motivated to create any of the projects shown. They range from a standard cat shelf to a cat wheel to help your pet stay in shape. You can even create your own cat drinking fountain. I felt like some of them could be done much easier - especially the cat bunk bed. This is an interesting book to flip through and get a couple of chuckles out of, but I don't recommend buying and keeping on hand as a reference book. It would be perfect, however, as a coffee table book in a vet's office.

Personally, I found this too difficult to follow. I did have a look through but wasn't very impressed with the illustrations. Great idea, though! For the right person, this could be a great find.

This is a very detail oriented book with well detailed instructions for someone that truly treats their cat or cats as practically human.

I may <em>never</em> build any of the things in this book, but at least I had fun reading about them.

The writing is very witty, and that is probably the best part of the book. Although my father was a carpenter, and built houses, as well as sets for the movies, he never passed the skill on to me, or bothered to teach me, because a) it was the 1960s, and b) I was a girl.

Still, I can appreciate all the plans in this book. Some are super simple, that even I could probably make them, such as a scratching post, although, those are cheap enough to purchase. The things that facinated me in this book were things such as the exercise wheel, which would be quite expensive if you were to find one for a cat.

The author explains the principle here:

<blockquote>There are at least several differences between hamsters and cats. I'm not claiming to be able to tell them apart every time&mdash;the majority of animal DNA is just cut and paste anyway, so that seems unrealistic&mdash;but my understanding is that there are some differences.
Fortunately, this project focuses on something that they have in common: the ability to expend energy running on a wheel.</blockquote>

And just in case you want to see what the finished product looks like, here it is:
<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Screen-Shot-2018-01-19-at-5.10.23-PM.png">

I would recommend this book to people who have the skills, or want to learn the skills, to build things for their cat(s). Very detailed step by step directions, as well as a list of what tools you will need, plus how long it will take you to build each object.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

A year ago I bought a very fancy and cheap cat tower from Amazon, yesterday it fell apart and I threw it away with a long stream of curses and swearing next time I am building my own!! Clearly for the amount of money I paid I could have gotten the supplies to construct a tower that would not have fall apart.....

And then this book falls in my lap to review, perfect timing! (well almost perfect, projects will be tackled after I move, so I cannot give feedback on whether these work, but having read many books on projects such as these I can say whether or not it looks like they will work!) Starting off fairly simply with a cat shelf (spoilers, shelves are what I use to keep my many breakables away from my cats, I am not training them to jump on shelves...ok maybe in a room where there are no breakables.) First off, bravo for reminding the readers that you need to find the stud before mounting anything that is going to have weight to a wall, and also for using the quarter tap test, a classic for people who may have lost their stud-finder.

Second off, wow is this book thorough with its instructions! I admit, woodworking has never been my forte, mostly because I am moderately terrified of saws, but find someone to cut the wood into shapes I need and I am good to go. Carpentry is one of those things that looks really REALLY complicated (and it can be) but the basics are really easy..,and this book demonstrates that with very clear and precise instructions and measurements.

Projects that really stood out to me as things I want to make: Bunk Beds, cat treat slot machine, drawbridge cat door (which would be painted to look like a castle drawbridge of course) litter box cabinet, and if I am feeling particularly brave...the cat wheel.

This is a great little book for DIYers and cat people alike, it would make a good gift and the projects inside it would also make good gifts.

An interesting books about explaining projects for improving the life of your cat.
Each project is very detailed with a lot of explenations and I could even try some even if my DYI skills are quite poor.
Really recommended to cat owners with DYI skils
Many thanks to Netgalley and Workman Publishing Company

While I haven’t attempted to make anything from this book yet, I can’t tell you if the dimensions are correct. I did enjoy reading the introductions to each project. My 13 year old son and I are going to choose something to build from this book for our cat Pearl.