I finished the catio today. Is it perfect? Oh, hell, no. But considering its my first attempt, and the largest home project I’ve done so far, I think it turned out as well as can be expected. Tonka is disappointed that when we let him outside, he wasn’t able to take off and roam the neighbourhood. He did get ‘stuck’ between the fencing and the railing pickets, but we think he learned his lesson. (I honestly didn’t think he’d try to get out that way.) Anyway, he has a place to go outside of the house – with a litter box and some growing wheat grass.
Tonka’s 14 years old. He’s not as good at jumping up on the bed as he used to be. I don’t think he’l try to climb out. Goo, on the other hand, is a climber. We’re not letting her out yet; and when we do, she’ll be supervised.
Both Home Depot and Lowes sell a netting that goes on fruit trees to keep birds and deer out; it’s just 1" square nylon, holds up to weather really well. You could do a kind of batting cage effect w/ it.
Your cats are so lucky; you are in the higher ranks of Cat Dads.
We had the nice roofed section already, so it was just a matter of fencing it in. I used:
[ul][li]Four pressure-treated eight-foot 4x4s for the uprights (door jambs);[/li][li]Two pressure-treated 12-foot 4x4s for the cross beams;[/li][li]Fifteen treated 2x2s for the door frames and two track mounts;[/li][li]Two eight-foot 7/16x1.5-inch hemlock strips for spacing the 2x2 door track mounts;[/li][li]Five 72inch Pocket Door Track and Hardware Sets (one for the extra track, and I used an extra roller in each of two doors) for the sliding doors;[/li][li]About 120 feet or so of wire fencing;[/li][li]Eight small screw eyes;[/li][li]Four wire tent pegs that fit in the screw eyes;[/li][li]Four hooks to hold the tent pegs up when the doors are open;[/li][li]One 325-count box of poultry staples;[/li][li]Sixteen 2½-inch screws;[/li][li]Six 3-inch screws;[/li][li]Four L-brackets (to hold the backs of the doors);[/li][li]One hundred 4-inch zip-ties;[/li][li]String, duct tape, and an extra person to hold things in place.[/ul][/li]I had a mitre saw, a Black & Decker Workmate, a cordless drill, some drill bits and Phillips screwdriver, a straight-blade screwdriver, a hacksaw, long-handled dikes; a square, a pen, a ladder, a step-stool, and… I think that’s it.
Cutting the fencing and nailing (stapling?) it was a PITA since I didn’t have any help in that department. There was some blood. Otherwise, it was just building what was in my head.
Thanks. I have a covered section of my deck I want to fence in. As my cats have never really been out in the yard I think they would love a place on the deck. If I’m out there with dogs they come to the threshold. I have a coconut fiber mat out the door and they depise it. They’ll take a tentative step and hop back in. It’s really kinda funny. A few times I’ve opened both french doors and they’ll come about 5 steps out. And sit and look bored. One move from me and they jump right back in. I’m careful with it because if they were to get real spooked and took off I’d never find them in the woods. They would last about 27min. out there in the dark.
I’m gonna show your pix to Mr.Wrekker and bug him til he does it.
Wonderful job…but I wouldn’t risk underestimating Tonka’s climbing abilities. I don’t know your cat, of course. But they tend to be determined creatures. And a healthy fourteen year old cat is still pretty agile.
I’m just saying, if there’s a way out over the fence, Tonka might manage it.
I forgot a couple of things on the list. I used two L-angles on each upright (8 L-angles total) to secure them to the deck and roof. The end of one of the crossbeams sits on top of the 6x4 beam. I used a post cap to secure it.
Very nice! Since we had to replace the decking, we just upgraded our homemade catio to a commercial enclosed porch with a Suntuf roof. Our issue isn’t so much that these particular cats could get out as that other cats, raccoons, and squirrels used to get in (and then into the house, such a pleasure to encounter wildlife inside at 3 AM). Can’t do much about bats or catfights through the wire except make sure the boys’ shots are up to date.
Poor Tonka keeps pacing round and round, looking for a way out. For five years he was allowed to roam freely. He generally stayed close, but he would disappear for a couple of hours at a time. A neighbour complained he was growling at her feral cats*, so Mrs. L.A. decided he’d be an indoor cat. He was miserable. I hope he adjusts well to his new life in AlCATraz.
The crows warn when there are raccoons about, and we’d take Tonka inside. We wouldn’t let him out, and we’d bring him inside, during times there might be coyotes (rare in this neighbourhood, but seen twice in the yard in the past 16 years). But Mrs. L.A. wants zero risk.
I talked to another neighbour yesterday. She said the neighbour that complained about Tonka had complained that her chihuahua ‘tried to kill’ her feral cats. Complaining neighbour is nice, but I think she’s a little hyper.
Nice! We were fortunate to have a fully screened porch, from which our cats cannot escape, already present in the house we moved to a few years ago. Great job on it!
NB, we also call ours the “Catio.” Nice term, right?
Tonka is still ‘walkin’ the mile’ in AlCATraz, but he’s spending a lot of time sleeping in one or another chair as he’s wont to do. Goo finds it a Whole New World. Goo went between the pickets of the railings and the fencing, but she backed herself out. Tonka had to go back there again right after Goo did, and he figured out that he can back up to get out.
