Given that cats are partly arboreal, meaning that in nature they would spend a lot of time on branches and given how much cats like attention and the company of the humans they befriend, an invention that we have seen and seemed interesting has been a bed for cats mounted onto a desktop stand.

These beds are to be found for sale and it is easy to get one but if there are leftovers from multi-monitor stands, it does not seem to be too difficult to create one. Even looking at the example image above, the desk vice is really an extremely standard vice to be found in right about every monitor mount kit and then whole "arm" clamping mechanism the same.

The illustration above is a premade solution so planning ahead is easy given the desired results are known. Here is roughly what this solution looks like when purchased:

    |
    |
    3=+............+ <--- metal frame, typically a round ring
    |  \          / 
    |   +--------+ crib
    |
    |
   --- vice
    +

Briefly, this is just a vice an empty pipe with a clamp gripping the pipe on one side and on the other a metal frame is screwed on. Typically, the frame is a metal ring and then some textile is sewn around the metal frame in order to create the "hammock-like" effect where the cat can hop in.

It is not too difficult to create such a thing with the "metal frame", the O-shaped ring being the only problem because it is not that common. However, all the components can be purchased and the desk-mounted cylinder is very generic and could be found second-hand at a bargain price.

For this project, the former "cat tower" that looks like a basket was available as a throwaway that was not used at all by the cat. So, the upper basket was salvaged in order to be mounted on top of a desk monitor stand.

The tower turned out to be well-made, with a cushion on top and then hiding the bottom part consisting in a centre hole with a screw that is meant to go all the way to the bottom. Given the long sturdy screw, it's a breeze to pass it through to a small mounting bracket that belongs to the desktop stand arm.

The bracket is actually the part that fits an usual monitor fitting bracket onto the arm of the stand. Here is an illustration where the bracket is from on a standard desktop arm stand.

With that done it's just a matter of screwing the basket onto the desktop stand arm. Here is a schematic of how this will finally look like:

    | vertical
    | pipe
    |             (             ) cat basket
    |              ------.------
    3=====||=====||=====|||
    | desk arm
    | 
    |
    |
   --- desk vice
    +

The fun part here is that by doing this by hand, the basket does not have to be right above the desk vice but rather the arm can be extended with the bed being at a distance from the desk or even bent around the corner of the desk.

It's a pass!

Even though the attraction to "suspended things" was a hypothesis based on the earliest known ancestor of the family, we were even surprised how successful it has been with the cat completely ignoring everything else and directly hopping into the crib. For a single person that spends most of their time at the computer, this invention is absolutely glorious because cats love to spend time with their fellow humans but there is no space on a computer desk and even if there were, the cat would just spread out and occupy everything. The bed now offers plenty of space on the desk whilst also giving the cat a place to stay when it chooses to visit.

Initially we did not think to document this but given how successful it has been, it was worth mentioning. This is perhaps an instance of "let's build things out of trash" because everything you have seen regarding the build that was made is really recycled stuff from old equipment in storage that was not needed and was pending to be thrown away. The shaft itself is from a monitor mount that does not even exist anymore from about 5 years ago, the vice is newer and from a different mount kit for which the vice was discarded because it was too large, the arm is from a very frail mount kit part that had two arms, the clamp that fits on the pipe had to be replaced because the one holding the arm was too large and would not grip the pipe properly and, finally, the bed itself is out of a recycled bed tower like the one mentioned previously. In some sense, nothing was made for this project, only assembled out of pieces.

One thing to mind for the construction is the weight that the desk stands are meant to support. In principle, these desktop stands are out of some disgusting iron with improper weldings and cheap enough for parts to not fit properly more than often. However, they are overly sturdy so, in that sense, as disgusting of a built it is, there is plenty of iron on it to pretty much sustain a human. The one that was built feels like the vice will break the wooden desk before the arm gives way so it will clearly support a cat, regardless how chubby it is, maybe even a dog. It is also not excluded to use the same build for other pets, maybe foxes or ferrets (same family) because it looks like lots of fun.