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!