A whole raft of questions from a prospective owner (slave?).

AS I said in my intro piece, I'm not yet a Maine Coon owner, not an owner of any sort of feline, but I'm here to listen, learn, and gain as much knowledge as I can before making a decision of any sort. It might be that the decision is not to go ahead with a cat, but if so, that might well be the best decision for the poor feline in question. However, I do have a number of questions, that hopefully will add to my knowledge, and ultimate decision making.
My garden is almost impossible to 'cat-proof' as a complete unit. It has 5 boundaries that would need proofing, including one set of wide double gates, plus a single personal gate, and over 70 foot of hedging, laurel, leylandii, hawthorn, bramble (!) etc, which we are not allowed to replace with fence (its in the house deeds). Total length of the boundary is about 90 metre, so there's also a huge cost implication.
In view of this I was thinking of making a 'cat run' with timber and netting, partly enclosing a small willow tree in the middle of the garden. This tree was attacked by frost what a sapling, and has pollarded itself, and now has 5 main trunks, and obviously lots of branches. Its too tall to enclose totally, so I would have to make the netting go round the trunks, say about 8ft up, and make sure that was totally secure. Is this a good idea, or not?

Access to the run would have to be, at present, by taking the cat there, physically, and collecting him/her again later, and I have not yet been able to work out a way to make an access run to get to it, all our doors are fully glazed, all the rooms are in the wrong place to put a cat flap through the walls (Is it possible to put a cat flat big enough for a Maine Coon through a cavity wall?), and the windows are not suitable. Much thought needed there.

In making a run, and an access tunnel when I have solved the aforementioned problems, is it safe to use tanalised timber? Tanalised treated timber has been in use for a number of years, especially since creosote was banned, but there is now research to say that tanalising is more dangerous than creosote. It seems that the copper and arsenic compounds used in the process easily leach out into the surrounding soil. I have seen an article in a gardening magazine saying that vegetables grown in beds surrounded by treated timber are so laden with chemicals that they should not be eaten. I wonder if any forum members have any thoughts on this.

I had also thought of making my own cat tree, so the problem with treated timber might arise there as well. Are Maine Coons prone to chewing on the timber structure?

I have another idea regarding a cat run, but I have grave doubts that this might be dangerous for the cat. For a dog, its possible to rig up a high level wire across an open space, and attach a leash to a runner on the wire, to give the dog a degree of freedom to run up and down. As Maine Coons seem to be amenable to training to walk on a leash, would this idea be any good? My big worry is that with the inbuilt agility and climb ing ability of any cat, there is a danger that they could become entangled in the leash, or climb up to the wire, and end up hanging themselves!

Does anyone have any experience of the so called 'self-cleaning' litter boxes. As an engineer, the whole idea of putting a mechanical contrivance to work with an animal of any description, let alone anything as clever and inquisitive as a cat, seems fraught with the possibilities of disaster. Do these things actually work in the real world, or do they jamb up, throw litter all over the floor, get destroyed by Fluffy or scare him/her away? Any experiences?

As I am retired, I am at home most of the time, most days, but obviously need to go out for shopping trips etc. etc. Will a Maine Coon be happy with these periods alone? Sometimes, not very ofter, my wife and I need to go out for a long day, will the cat cope with this? What do others do when going away on holiday? We don't have family nearby who could look after a cat, so we would need to use a boarding cattery, is this OK?

I am sure that I will have more questions before I can come to a reasoned decision, plus the big problem of persuading my wife that this is a good idea at all. We have been dog owners for 30 years, but its becoming too much of a strain on my walking abilities to take a dog for a mile+ walk every day, hence the thoughts regarding a cat. My only experience of cat ownership was 60 years ago, when my family had a tabby moggie. A nasty, bad tempered cat, that came from a local stables, was semi-feral, and had never been handled at all (I think); she was most person Un-friendly, but she was completely unrepresentative of cats in general, but hence I am trying to learn as much as possible before taking the plunge and inflicting myself on some poor kitten, or perhaps an older 'welfare' or 'rescue' cat. I am drawn to two breeds, the Maine Coon, and the Norwegian Forest Cat, because of their size, and supposed good temperament.

I've bored you all enough by now, so I hope that you can give advice, and answer some of my questions.

Alec

Hi AlecD!
I am married to a software engineer so I know how his mind works! Always planning ahead. He was not a cat person when we got our MC, he is now totally in love with this large in charge cat. She even does palates with him in the morning. I am totally an indoor cat person as here in the US letting cats run the streets is discouraged. She gets along great with our two beagles, she does prefer one over the other. I used a automatic cleaning box with a moggie I had and the problem was that the piddle was scrapped away before it could solidify which just made a mess of the scrapper. I have trained my girl ginger to use the loo, and she is very good at it. No litter box to clean and no icky smells of urine to deal with. It helps to start training them when they are kittens. I always kept her litter box in the loo so I had to start raising it to the level of the loo, and after a while it is just second nature to hop up and go. I have to say the Ginger is the most dog like cat, she loves to have her belly rubbed. Good luck on your decision to do what is best for you. I think they are great companions and do not need as much attention as a puppy!
Attachment 7498This was the first step of the journey to rid us of the litter box! kind of messy but they move along to the next step quickly (sometimes)

Attachment 7499Ginger checking out the hole in the Litterkwitter

Hello Alec and welcome to the forum,

I'm a new Maine Coon owner but have cat experience and I have a couple of thoughts.

You are correct about the leash and high level wire. You could one day end up with a strangled cat ( probably not what you want). If you decided to make a run and you are worried about treated timer, then marine ply could be an option. I have used it at work for years with great results. I'm not sure about toxicity of tantalised timber, but it's interested me and I'm going to have to look into it now.

I don't see why having to carry your cat too and from the pen is an issue. You can use a cat carrier if you like. My garden and house sounds similar to yours so I understand your predicament.

I have read some bad reviews about self cleaning litter boxes but have no experience with them. I use a catit litter box which has been great!

Your cat should be fine with you having the occasion all day off from being his slave. I'm sure he'd allow you to pop out for the day every now and then. Mine have always had to tolerate me working full time and it's been something that they became used to very early on. The new one, who's 15 weeks has just started to be left during the day and he seems fine with it. He's very confident and seems to take most things in his stride, even the two large dogs and two small children.

Have fun deciding what you'd like to do.

Best wishes.

hi Alec - welcome to the forum - cats are quite happy to just stay indoors so you don't have to have the run ready immediately.
I have never heard of a cat chewing any timber - that's more a dog thing. But MCs have the peculiarity of being quite individual, so you never know. I say try it, if it doesn't work out then you can change your plans later on.
I too have heard bad reviews of the self cleaning litters, but I have no experience myself so couldn't say for sure - and getting them to work with the "Litter-Quitter" although very rewarding, is a game of patience (well done Donna!) - the idea is that they would learn to use the toilets, instead of their litter... MCs are clever as cats go, but they're still cats and as such they like to do what they like to do, so training them is still rather time consuming... but not impossible... and if you have experience with dogs you might want to try...
I hope you manage to convince your better half, and enjoy your bundle of fur very soon !

Hi all, My automatic litterbox was over a $100 and a mess, terrible to clean yuck. I gave it away. Now the litterkwitter is awesome, and yes you need patience, We have one main loo that we all use, so it was trying at times. She is still a scratcher and wakes me up with her loudly scratching the lid, but it is a trade off no cat box to clean, voila!