Catios?

fiwen30

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22 May 2014
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Anyone got one, built one, thinking about getting one?

We have 2 moggies - 8ish year old female rescued 1.5 years ago, and a 1 year old male had from a kitten, both indoor/outdoor, though neither of them venture further than the neighbouring 2 gardens behind our terrace. Hopefully moving house soon, had talked about possibly adding a pedigree to the family in the future, and so had started to look at little at catios.

Older girl dislikes the kitten - nothing nasty, just likes her space. She's very sensitive to stress and change, and shows it by peeing in the house (all medical possibilities were ruled out). She has 2 safe spaces in the house, where she knows the kitten won't go, and likes to be able to get away from him when she can. She's a ground dwelling cat, not a climber. Kitten is curious about her, and likes to follow her in semi-play, but gets rebutted with some Strong Words from her. He's a ball of energy and loves to climb.

We're moving to a quiet street, about halfway down a cul-de-sac, so only residential traffic - the sort where kids play out on their bikes safely - with similar access to neighbouring gardens as we have currently. House is a similar size to our current one, but the garden is smaller though, and will also have to accommodate 2 large rabbit enclosures.

I suppose I'm weighing up whether or not a catio might be an appropriate investment for our cat-family, or if our girl would be miserable and stressed at not being able to get 'away', and if the kitten would be frustrated at being contained. The house move will be difficult enough as it is for them, and I'm already not looking forward to cleaning up our girl's puddles.

Thoughts?
 
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