The invention relates to a pet house, particularly for cats, that can be erected and collapsed, quickly and easily.
Pet houses should both be able to be cleaned frequently, preferably by using a domestic washing machine, and easily transportable for carrying the pet from place to place during vacations etc.
The prior art discloses a variety of cat tube toys and, in particular, a rectangular sheet of material with engageable teeth of a zip fastener mechanism extending along one pair of opposite edges enabling those edges to be folded up and secured together to form a cat-admitting tube open at opposite ends so that the cat can rest with its body extending along the tube between the open ends.
Although the fastener can be unzipped to revert to the sheet-form for convenient washing and compact storage, the toy tube is not suitable for a cat house as not providing sufficient room for a mature cat to turn around or, security for carrying, as both opposite ends remain open.
Accordingly, the invention provides a pet house that can be erected and collapsed, by folding and unfolding an elongate strip of material by manipulating only a single zip fastener which extends around a peripheral edge.
More particularly, the elongate strip has lands of identical size at respective opposite ends, one land being formed with a pet access aperture and the lands being joined together by an intermediate bridging portion; a zip faster mechanism with a sliding clasp and zipper teeth extending completely around the edges of the strip; such that, to in erecting the pet house from a strip in flat position, moving the sliding clasp along the teeth from a re-entrant portion progressively draws the edges of the strip together, folding/bending up the strip to form a completely enclosed, conically walled pet house with the pet aperture positioned in a front conical wall, upstanding for pet access and, the intermediate portion forming a rear and the other land forming a bottom/base.
Unzipping, by moving the sliding clasp in a reverse direction, releases the edges to return to a flat position for cleaning and washing in an washing machine or for packing or folding to a smaller, flat configuration for transportation.
Preferably, the lands at respective opposite ends of the strip are part-circular and respective opposite free edges of the intermediate bridging portion extend in parallel relation tangentially from edge portions of respective lands on respective opposite sides of the strip and join respective lands at respective re-entrant portions such that the erected pet house is wedge shape.
The strip comprises an interior layer of tricot and an exterior layer of nylon.
As shown in
To erect the cat-house from the strip in flat position, (with the clasp commencing in the alternative position in re-entrant portion 9′ as shown in
Sliding the clasp in a reverse direction releases the edges to return the strip to a flat position.
As the cat-house is wedge shape, it may readily be carried by the pet owner with the cat inside simply by grasping the narrow top (peak) 16.
Thus, the pet house can be erected and collapsed flat for cleaning, compact storage or transportation when unoccupied, by folding and unfolding an elongate strip of material simply by zipping and unzipping a single zip fastener which extends completely around a peripheral edge.
Priority is claimed from my provisional application 62/222,418, filed Sep. 23, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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62222418 | Sep 2015 | US |