Thread: First time owner

That is a good decision, Vikaroo.

You will find a lot of experiences from others on here. Beside the link I posted earlier, there’s this one by a member who built their own cat run, and this one about catproofing fences.

Also, if you Google something along the lines of “catproof garden” you will find many tips, ideas and companies selling materials. For instance, this one:
Cat Fence: Purrfect Cat Enclosures and Cat Fences

Personally, I prefer catproof fencing over a run because it gives your cats the opportunity to be with you in the garden instead of in a separate pen. But of course not all gardens are easily catproofed. Neither was ours initially, because of its shape. It’s an L shape with the bottom of the L being at the back of the house where we wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on the cats. So we decided to put up a separation fence and catproof only the patio (the vertical part of the L), where we can see them all the time.

The catproofing was done with netting. It’s inexpensive, relatively easy, and quite effective – the Coonies do try to scale the fences sometimes but once their paws touch the netting they loose grip and jump back down.

This was done on the exisiting fence. There was also a problematic conifer that we climb-proofed with a sheet of plastic.



And this is my husband fitting the net on top of the new separation fence with tiewraps.



I am sure others on here too can help you find a good solution for keeping your future furkids safe inside their own outdoor territory!

I think you are doing a wonderful thing by aiming for two babes from the start double fun,double trouble but company for each other. We went for the MC because they are recognised as being very happy as an indoor cat as they are very people orintated & would never even have given a thought to having one to let it outside to roam freely,we never questioned the fact that we had to sign a paper to say they would be kept in or only let out in contolled circumstances. We are very lucky that by converting half the carport we could make half of it into a cat pen which they can enter via the sitting room but we also have a fairly small garden which by just putting in higher panels we were able to wire along the top & when we are about they can roam out there freely too.
Having had the worry of a domestic cat getting shut up in a warehouse for a few days over a bankholiday & then getting killed on a road that it had no need to go near I always said never no more but to have the company of these wonderful creatures & know I can go to bed easy at night is great,have great fun house & kitty hunting in the very near future.....