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4 Cats, a Fence and a Corner Lot
Richard_Dastardly
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My wife and I are trying to figure out a way to let our cats roam the backyard unsupervised when spring comes. We live on a corner lot, so if we put a privacy fence along the whole yard the zoning board would not be pleased.
While I can put a 7' fence along the side I share with my neighbor, I can only put up a 4' fence along the sidewalk. I checked, and a line of trees or shrubs counts as a fence. So, forums.penny-arcade.com, how can I modify or supplement a 4' fence to contain my cats?
I built a pond at my mom's house a few years back and I'm going to do the same with my house, so I had considered using that as a barrier. Of course, I don't imagine my wife would be to happy with us having a moat...
Also, I'm not going to use any sort of electrical shock collars and I won't be putting my cats on leashes (unless that ends up being the only option).
While I can put a 7' fence along the side I share with my neighbor, I can only put up a 4' fence along the sidewalk. I checked, and a line of trees or shrubs counts as a fence. So, forums.penny-arcade.com, how can I modify or supplement a 4' fence to contain my cats?
I built a pond at my mom's house a few years back and I'm going to do the same with my house, so I had considered using that as a barrier. Of course, I don't imagine my wife would be to happy with us having a moat...
Also, I'm not going to use any sort of electrical shock collars and I won't be putting my cats on leashes (unless that ends up being the only option).
Richard_Dastardly on
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I mean, short of encasing the entire garden in chicken mesh - and I'm talking a seamless chicken mesh wrap, including a ceiling and mesh buried half a foot under the ground - they will just find a way to climb out.
And really, you shouldn't worry about the cats roaming further than the garden boundaries anyway, it's what cats do.
There are a lot of stray cats roaming the neighborhood, not to mention the stray cars. I don't really wanna worry about them contracting some disease or lying dead on the side of the road, plus Rie would have none of it. Our one cat would always hop the fence at our apartment, and my wife'd make me take the flashlight and go looking until Beanie came back.
I had a cat when I was a teen who'd spend days away from home. He lived a good 10 years before getting FIV. but, he'd gotten shot twice with BB guns and he somehow ended up missing part of his left ear.
http://www.catfencein.com/
There's a couple products like that -- it's just the top of the google search. The idea is that they're angled at the top, either 90 or 45 degrees, inwards towards the yard. Cats can climb, of course, but they can't climb and support their body while hanging, and definitely can't swing around an edge ;D
Most things like that you should be able to add with some chicken wire or netting and some metal supports.
However, no matter what you decide to do, you should always supervise your pet when it plays outside. If you just let your normally indoor cat go outside, it could dig under the fence or do something stupid.
This. Just keep an eye on them - if you're worried about them running, harness and leash them.
Yeah, it's humiliating for the cats and maybe for you - but isn't driving around at 10:00pm with a flashlight saying "Here Kitty Kitty Kitty, come home Fluffy Wuffkins" more embarassing? :P
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
I fail at Google. I'll definately give this a try.
4ft will not be high enough unless the cats are practically disabled - personally, my cats can jump almost 5-6ft from a near standing start without breaking a sweat.
Anyway, just want to add another vote here that, unless they're basically in an enclosed cube that extends into the ground, you should not be letting previously indoor-only cats roam outside unsupervised.
As others mentioned, there are so many hazards they can run into outside - cars, getting shot, parasites, disease, fighting with other animals, killing local wildlife, etc - that i'm on the side that there's really no reason to let cats outside in the first place. If you must, then go with the harness and leash idea.
So, basically, we have:
====SIDEWALK========
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4'FENCE
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A*****BUSHES****Y
R...............................H
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7'FENCE
Two were initially indoor cats who we'd let outdoors at our apartment (we had a pretty large enclosed patio). One is a stray we adopted and the other is the stray's kitten. So, aside from the kitten, the cats have a hard-on for going outside.
Unless these are rose bushes or otherwise have large stabby thorns, i'd wager they're not likely to pose much of an obstacle.
Well, in the end it's up to you and your situation, just be aware of the risks if they manage to escape somehow
I've been weighing the risks vs. benefits of letting them outside. There's always the chance of them escaping, but they've been packing on weight this winter. I play with them, but four cats get in one another's way when chasing a single string; they do play together, but I think they're getting bored.
Stupid zoning laws.
Hey... replacing the bushes with rosebushes might not be a bad idea... I'm terrified of bees, but it might crate an extra level of security.
If they are experienced outdoors cats then just let 'em go play outdoors. The kitten will learn gradually and probably wont journey too far until it is capable, the others will be able to look after themselves.
Cats can keep themselves away from most danger pretty well. They'll develop a healthy distrust for strangers and can outrun/outclimb most other wildlife. Sure, some of them get unlucky and dart out under a 16-wheeler but then some cats get cat cancer or choke to death on a fur ball.
Besides which, they will just use that bush to vault your fence anyway and then what? You've fenced off their route home? Well, probably not even at 4 foot. A cat can easily leap a good five to six foot straight up.
If your cats are growing bored indoors, letting them out into the backyard and attempting to contain them is only going to result in them having some additional square footage to briefly amuse them until they become bored with it and want to go ranging further. Instead maybe try varying up the toys that you have out for them to play with. Rotate them on a regular schedule so the cat's don't get too accustomed to the same balls, strings, etc.
When we let our cat out we'd always just watch him. Another thing we did is built a shelf by the window that our cat could lay by. But thats not ideal for excercise.
Momo, Boyboy and Mommy-mon (I didn't name them) all eat their regular portion. But, Beanie likes to eat a little bit and then come back later to finish up. He eats in a seperate room (he picks the spot), but it's inevitable that the others find his stash. They're not getting OMGDIABEETUS! fat, but I have noticed them all packing on a little bit of weight. Of course, that could be because we've replaced the fancyfeast with friskies.
We bought our house near the end of last summer, so we would take our cats (we had two at the time) for supervised visits outside. Between the bushes and the big blue fir tree, we had our hands full. I imagine it'll be pretty difficult for two people to watch four cats. Perhaps Rie and I could develop some sort of fence extension unit, and just put it up whenever the cats are outside.
She's very much an exception, though. If you're talking about just letting your cats out into a small fenced backyard, the amount of exercise they get there will be essentially no different than the amount they would get inside. They're not going to be running laps around the perimeter or anything; they're going to half-heartedly chase a butterfly, maybe do a five-second tearabout, then flop down in the sun. I live in a tiny little one-bedroom apartment, and my cat does just fine in here for exercise without ever going outside. She's full of energy, healthy, and she's at an ideal weight.
The key is diet. Portion control is a good start, but you'll get much better results if you switch to a high-grade food.
Here's a list of the first 15 ingredients Google turned up for Friskies:
Here are the first 15 ingredients from the back of the Go! Natural stuff I feed my cat:
Cats don't need grain. Wild cats do not raid farmers' cornfields at night, nor do they lust after wheat gluten or soybeans. Cats eat meat. They eat fish, and poultry. Grain is dumped into the vast majority of cat food not because cats need it, but because it's cheap filler. Your cat doesn't need it, and in many cases, they'd be better off without it - gluten and corn allergies are surprisingly common in cats.
Switch to a premium cat food, and your cats will be healthier and happier for it. Choose brands that use only specific named protein sources - "turkey" rather than "meat by-product" - and avoid those that make extensive use of corn, wheat, and soy. (Grain-free is ideal, in my unqualified opinion, but plenty of good foods incorporate small amounts of grain).
I will add my own little bit that we used to feed our girl Fancy Feast, and she was on the road to unhealthy weight gain, eating 2 cans worth per day to be satisfied.
We switched to various flavors of the grain-free Wellness cat food a couple years ago, and that stopped right in its tracks - and while it's more expensive, she's satisfied with half the food. Our boy's been eating it his whole life and he's built like a furry orange tank.
When I bought my house it had a simple 8'x16' concrete poorch in the backyard. I live in Houston, Texas, so it's kind of muggy, not to mention there are tons of mosquitos. I ended up taking a few weekends with my father and a couple friends and we built a simple screened-in poorch ontop of the slab. What didn't occur to me was that my inside cat could now go sit "outside" and have no hope of getting loose.
While building a screen poorch for just for your cats is probably insane, if you do lots of grilling out and like to sit outside in the evenings like we do the time/materials investment may be worth it.
Cats catch a lot more diseases from bugs than from other cats.
In my mind I am imagining a contraption made out of field fence (or called horse fence, a rollable wire grid 6ft tall with 2"x4" holes small enough to keep anything but a newborn kitten in) that you could keep rolled up when not in use, then unroll it accross your lawn when needed. If your lawn is not too wide it would not be too big of a hassle...you could permanently attach it to one side and have a strap to wrap around it when not in use....maybe put some sort of fancy post in the middle to brace it when you unroll it. Something that serves a dual purpose like a bird feeder on a really thick post.
I could see making it workable, with a little time and creativity!
====SIDEWALK========
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4'FENCE
M
A*****BUSHES****Y
<---here
R...............................H
A...............................O
G...............................M
E................................E
7'FENCE
The overwhelming consensus on the internet seems to urge people to keep their cats in doors, so I guess I'm pissing into the wind here. Sites seem to be stating that average indoor lifespan is around 14-15 years whilst average outdoor lifespan is around 2-4 years. That's just unbelievable for me. We had six cats who all lived well into their teens and were constantly outdoors. One of them was a deaf albino cat and even he lived past 15 until a brain tumour eventually finished him off. Of course, we lived in the countryside so there was a much lower density of other cats, traffic etc.
I'd say if you live in a reasonably rural area then your cat should be safe enough free-roaming. If you live in the inner city, probably best to never let them get a taste of fresh air.
My family are cat lovers. They've had loads of cats (about 8 in my lifetime) in both rural and urban areas. All have been outdoor cats. Ad-hoc stats suggest about 2/3 of the cats died of natural causes, 1/3 were run over by cars. None of the cats picked up any diseases or fatal injuries from any other cause than cars.
The danger sounds bad, but cats are hunting beasts. Roaming, wandering and killing small rodents is what makes them happy. If you let your cats run free, chances are that some of them will die on the roads. But if you keep them in, they will not know the true catty happiness of stalking little mice through the hedges.
The decision rests largely on where you live. If the roads nearby are >30 mph speed limit, better keep them inside. If nearby roads are slow roads, with plenty of fields or scrubland nearby, then let them roam. It's worth the risk. Cats are mean little hunting machines, not couch cushions.
We were talking about something like that last night. My idea was way more complicated and retarded, consisting of brackets and pulleys. This'd be a lot simpler...
As Szechuanosaurus mentioned, there is massive evidence to the contrary that cats can live perfectly happy and healthy inside for their whole lives, and there are plenty of ways for them to experience "true catty happiness" besides letting them run around outside and kill mice.
If you want something for them to "hunt" inside, try things like these squid toys:
These get "killed" on a daily basis, they present them to us, make the same weird meow i've heard cats do with real animals, etc.
Fact: Outdoor cats face more dangers, and anecdotal evidence aside if you drew a graph of life expectancy outdoor cats would have a shorter lifespan on average.
A lot depends on where you live though. Cars and dogs are probably the two biggest cat killers. Disease, not so much as long as you keep an eye on them. So if you don't have dogs and don't have cars to worry about your cat does not have much to worry about either. Those are really a cats natural predators. Well, those and jackasses who shoot them for sport.
So, if you do live a coyote area, I wouldn't recommend even letting cats roam in the backyard, as if they're hungry enough, coyotes will go right in and grab the tasty pets.