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Arts and Entertainment

Happy Caturday! Here Are Some Fancy Cat Houses

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We recently attended a fundraiser in which the draw was seeing a number of cat shelters designed by local architects. And this weekend, you have your chance to meet some of the Internet's top cats.

Architects for Animals "Giving Shelter" is a benefit for FixNation—which helps to minimize cat populations using humane trap, neuter and return methods—and it had its very first event in L.A. after typically being held in New York. We got a chance to observe 14 different cat shelters and vote for our favorite.

The popular vote went to a shelter by HOK. HOK said their team was going for a modernist European aesthetic. "The simple shape creates two scales of shelter; smaller modular units placed within a large enclosure to create a 'home within a home'," the firm said in their artist statement.

One of the designs had a very practical backstory. The shelter from Abramsom Teiger was built for a pair of cats that Douglas Teiger's family rescued who didn't particularly want to stay indoors. Douglas Teiger and his son Jared, 11, built the shelter together for less than $20 using cedar siding and a plastic box they already had. "It proved to be eight hours of great father-son bonding," Teiger said in his statement.

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